After I returned home Mom and Dad hugged me. We flew over, shortly after returning home, to Kentucky for Christmas, where I saw the rest of my family. They were so excited to se me. Bruce, Annette, Stanley, Evan, Uncle Stan, Brenda, Paul—we had our movie night at his house (with LOTS of good popcorn) and Mary Lee, and Nell, plus Make, and Chander, and Clayton, and Dorothy (I stayed at her house for I think the first time) with a (slightly) more grown-up Carenna of course ;), because sGrandma felt flummoxed with too many people in her house, though of course she loved having the Diamonds for Christmas (you know how Grandma is =P) and Lauren asked me all about my trip. I hadn’t really processed it yet—I was just still so excited! I to my infamous “Christmas sweater” photo—Paul looked at my pictures form Sri Lanka, and gushed, “Gosh! Austin! You’re just so white!”
We came back home and on January 1, 2013, I started to write. I made some stabs, but I couldn’t really get anywhere. My Dad found me a job at Office depot, introducing me to his “Friend,” Ricardo.
I have a lot of funny stories from there. We always laughed (me, Sheldon, and Bashir ^plus everyone else working there—Daisy) about how we were always supposed to say “my pleasure” when we were hoping customers. It always made me think of Paradise. (I guess just because f the p? :)) Taylor Swift? Jimmy always called me “Triple P” because I was the tiop-seller in Performance Protection Plans, which reminds me of Michael Collado. I caught up with him and told him a little about myself tory. We went bowling at Pinza nd I found out about an opportunity not far away in Studio City. Yup. That’s right. At CAMPBELL HALL< land of my junior high and high school years antics and exploits. It urned out they had an opening or a position coaching cross-country. I as going to be a high school coach. I met Linda Grasso, editor of Ventura Boulevard magazine (a local outfit), who said she could run a short version of my story. I was excited; it would be very short, of course, but it was still one of the hardest things I’ve ever written. At this point the trajectory of y story had changed—I had come up with the conceit of “When i Ruled The World.” It was hard managing both things, but I think I dd a pretty darn good job as a high school coach. 🙂
We ran away with our league. I soul say literally ran way. Alongside head coaches Jason Mills and Will Cullinan, we helped our students set new Pos, both academically and athletically, on and off the field, getting them way on-track. Through lots and lots of lunges, and Avila’s Ascents, and FREEZING cold ice-baths,(a Pflieger trick) we actually got THIS close to beating Praaclete, and for the first time in years, go the chance to run twice at Mt. SAC, because, yep, we made it, I should say they made it, with a little help from us coaches, to CIF.
Well, that little jaunt of running re-energized my love of running. Had developed a little pet project—we’ll come back to that a little alter. My Dad, as you know, had (and has) a pretty amazing little company, called Joe Diamond Events—he gavee me the opportunity to work for him. Way back, before I’d left for Sri Lanka, it had been Tiffany. Now, working in the office alongside mew as a sweet little country thing called Katie.
She was super cute. She loved Americana and country music. All she ate for lunch asa grapefruit. During her lunches, she showed me funny stuff. After her lunches, and sometimes before, we listened to Disney music on Pandora, and we hammed it up. Maybe I should say hammed it up (because I’m not a girl.) I never sang that way before, belting out songs, without my abandon, and maybe at this point, I should tell you about Running Readers, which is a really great company, or maybe I should tell you about My Story.
Anyway, mea nd Katie were working some great events together .We went to Westfield Topanga for a Halloween Extravaganza and I channeled Taylor Swift. I loved seeing the kids bounce up and down to “Shake It off”. I met Anna and Olaf from Frozen. WE danced together. And at the top of the year, I went to the Grove and Americana for the Christmas tree lightings, and we channeled the New Year.
It was 2015 by now. I kept working for my Dad and returned to a beautiful Woodley in the spring. The grass had grown up very green, and soon, it was covered with the beautiful yellow flowers of the yellow mustard that pops up in the late spring and early summer. I met Pflieger to run lot; I heard of Story City, and started a program called Young Storytellers. I should say I joined a program called Young Storytellers. It was headed by Damon Lira. Damon was the Head Mentor, and the way it worked is each 5th grade student is paired with their own mentor. Is till remember walking into the rooms nde vfeyfbody shouts and applauds for our new younger mentors, I should say mentees, our 5th-grade students who didn’t know they’d be writing story, or quite completely understand what they were doing. Our very first class I was paired with Sebastian. I asked him hwho he wanted to e. He said he wanted to be a soccer player—just like me. I wanted to be everything. I gave him a letter, on the night of his big speech—I wish I had a tape recording, so you could see just what an amazing night it was, and what his play meant to me—afterwards, me and my fellow mentors went to Freddy’s. WE got some killa brussel sprouts. Damon and Neil (Gordon) asked me about the story I was writing. “It’s about 1300 pages,” I said. They laughed and gave me Pflieger looks. “I’m working on editing it down.” The next spring, we all met up again o continue on our journey with newmentees, this time with Brandon who showed me the value (and gave me the confidence of having) a zany, off-the-wall, SUPER fabulous NARRATOR, and, that spring, I started probably the most inspirational job of my entire life, up to that point, at Sylvan Learning.
I still remember first applying. I wrote an e-mail to Catherine Johnson (she goes by “Cat”) and Shalla Bloom. Iwa s brought in by Cat to the Sylvan Woodland Hill center, where she gave me an overview of the new, empty space. I went to the Sherman Oaks location, where I met Shayla, and her assistant educational aide, Sarah (I didn’t really know what their differing roles were) and anyway, I was hired at the Woodland Hills location. I would be spending my time there (Mostly) and teaching and tutoring kids. Iw as all bout “Teaching,” because to me tutoring implied a lack of self-direction and sel-fpurpose in your learning, whereas, to me, teaching implied learning EVERYTHING—the whole enchilada—how to be a self-sufficient person. A lifelong learner> It thought it was hilarious (and super-cool) how at our first “board meeting” at night in the late winter, or maybe it was early spring, we took our own personality test and I came up with Tigger, because I was so outgoing, which was awesome, because it surprised me, but it didn’t surprise anybody! :)—I guess I’d finally come out of my shell, and let veryone know how I truly was, not somebody else.It was an awesome pizza party. I kept on tutoring through the spring. Bonnie enlisted me to staff the booths at the spring carnivals, which I absolutely loved. At that point Iw wasn’t really going anything, just standing there and looking pretty. 😛 Sarah, who had come on as the new Educational Director at Woodland Hills, asked me what I would be doing this summer. I said I don’t have any plans. She smiled at me and said, “Well, how would you like to been o of our teachers at our summer camps?” Of course I said yes. I was looking forward to our trip to Hawaii. On one of the fist weeks before “school” began (Camp) we decorated the center with paper palm trees, and I made a poster of the water cycle and life cycle and Earth, and taped it to thew all, coming in the early mornings, and I was just so proud to see it stand tall—I heard Lourdes ask me, “Did you make that? The kids were asking me. They said its as so cool.” And my heart beat a little, when I got my very own room.
That summer I honed my skills. I had four (sometimes five) pre-schoolers in my classroom—they ere so cute—and also ferocious. 😉 I had keep my eye out for them, to make sure they were always studying, and learning, and keeping out of trouble. But lost having FUN! This is preschool, after all, and its not the school-year yet, it’s summer!
I also had a 2nd-grade girl, Lyric, in my class. She helped me own mic raft. She wants to be children’s book illustrator, too, someday…when I rad to the class, she made sure that everyone was listening closely, not fighting iwht each other about ut something that was so inconsequential, it wouldn’t even make it into my diary…that summer, I went o Hawaii. It gave me a nice break. Iw alike along the beach in Waikiki. I had fun surfing new waves, and hen Ig to back, I started an new class (with mob each towel). I now had older kids in my classroom. There was Zayim, and Malik, and Yusuf, and Pokemon Go was a new hot thing going on.
Ia also had Viraat, a little Indian boy, who quickly became the leader in my class. He was just sos illy. He got a little place in my heart. 🙂 WE built robotics projects together, and we prove that nothing as impossible, thew ay eh built a Ferris Wheel, and a crane that he’d never built before, which I’m pretty sure before we started both he (and I) had thought was impossible.A
After that class this school year started. Viral was moving up with his Mom and Dad to Seattle. He wanted to be an electrical engineer, just like his Dad. I wrote him a letter.
I wanted him to know that anywhere he went, still, anything was possible.
I started throwing birthday parties. One kid in my class (Roman) who I’d started teaching at school wanted to have a birthday cake and a party in the center. I was hocked to see that it was a tank. Kids will be kids, I guess. 🙂 He blew out the candles. I twas time moe on to the next adventure.
During met time at Sylvan, I had been developing my program, Running Readers. I hadn’t been able to pick up any clients, but that all changed when Is tarts looking “NextDoor.” You can imagine my “Wonder” when my first student, “Jerry”, was a 82-year old! (I don’t know why I’m putting him in quotes.) He would bec one my resident “Historian>’ (I guess that) a nice way of putting it :P.) I gained Nefertari,
and Landon, one o the most talented students I’ve ever had. Sarah left Sylvan, and Iw as sad, but then I was glad—it gave me permission to leave too. She’s working on technology that helps kid who struggle with hearing (it’s called “audiology”) giving them a chance o read. She’s getting married. 🙂 I was starting to tell you about Landon. He drives me crazy. 😛 I also want to tell you about Pier1. I started working there in November of 2016. I have lots of people there who are looking out for me—Alex and Wendy, to name my store managers. Gerard and Holly. Alana really helped me learn what it is to properly clean (the bathrooms.) Now that I’m getting the end of myself peech, I”d like to tell you about Jeremy. He was my very first Spanish student. (Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe =P.) And I really want to ell you about Greta. And, of course, Lily. These two are some of my most promising students (along with everybody else.) They both love quesadillas. I’m telling them my story. In the middle of our lessons, I often stop and think, what would happen, actually happen, if I followed through my dreams of achieving world epee. And I stop to think, and run around my backyard because I’m nervous. And I start writing this letter to everybody.
Dear all,
Hi! I’m Austin! I don’t know how to begin as tory like this. You’re probably wondering who I am! WELL IC AN PRETTTY M UCH GUARANEE IM WONDERING A WHOLE LOT MORE WHO YOU ARE!!! I know who I am! i’m Austin! I’m me! Ir allyl ike peanut butter nd jelly! I really ike string cheese! I really like ice cream! I really ike EVERYTHING!!! I love the
Austin Diamond 