I took my dog outside today for our evening routine. I happen to walk out to the edge of my backyard fence and just got lost in the view. I stopped and just stared at this sunset for a few minutes. Sometimes it is nice to just simply slow down for a few minutes and take it all in. It’s amazing how many things I miss when I am running at full-speed all the time.
Rory Peacock
CoSN Team Finalist
It is always nice to receive a compliment for something you have done for someone, an achievement that you personally accomplished, or a personal award or accolade for success. It is even better when you get recognition as a TEAM!
The word excited does not even come close to the description of how I felt when we received the call that our ESC Region 11 Technology Team was chosen at the Team of the Year for the Texas chapter of CoSN (Consortium of School Networking) for our work on FIBER11. In addition to being chosen, we had the honor of representing Texas at the National Conference in Washington D.C.
The work that took place to earn this award was overwhelmingly hard, new, and came with a lot of outside doubters to make this network a reality. When it was all said and done, we had done something that had never been done in an education entity inside this great state. Furthermore, we were the very first ESC to ever receive the team award nationwide.
The amount of pride I am filled with getting to share this story is something I will carry with me from here on out. I wish the entire team would have been able to join me on this trip, but we were limited to only four of us getting to make the journey to our nation’s capital. It is going to be tough to top this one. Team. Effort. Results. I can’t say enough about my teammates!
Minnesota Miracle in Person!
I am sure that most everyone that reads this post has probably heard of the Minnesota Miracle from the Vikings vs Saints playoff game already. Whatever has been shown on TV, talked about in the papers, and shared across social media cannot do justice to the experience of being in that stadium and hearing the constant cheering throughout the building.
A little context for why we were there. My head football coach in college was Coach Steve Keenum, one of the most genuinely good people in this world that I have had the pleasure to meet. His son, a youngster at the time, was our ball boy named Case. You probably see where I am going with this. Case grew up and is currently in the NFL playing quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. I won’t get deep into his story. It’s been shared quite a bit already through many media outlets.
The other part that pulled me to the freezing cold weather of Minnesota in January was my new neighbor grew up there and is an avid fan. Put those two connections together, and let’s go watch a football game!
Long story short, because I could go on and on about that day, we got to be present during one of the greatest finishes in NFL playoff history, and then after the game got to hang out with a hero of the game, Case Keenum and his dad. We were all still quite speechless, not that I could have spoken very much with all the screaming that took place a few hours earlier. What an amazing thing to experience in person!
