Heroism and Tribute

Nothing like a major job change and move across country to infuse your doctoral studies. In late January my adult hero children helped me drive to Dallas where I accepted the appointment as Vice President for Learning Technologies within the company, Academic Partnerships. A thrilling opportunity for which I was deeply honored.

Family is priceless. One of the reasons why I moved from mine is to amplify my life's work and research to support more families.

On night of day 2 on the new job, I got the call every parent dreads. Terrible auto accident. Car totalled. Ambulance enroute to ER.

Thankfully, angels of mercy were following my daughter that allowed her to drop off my grandson five minutes before she was struck. Good samaritans carried her off the pavement within the path of oncoming cars after she crawled from the remains of her crushed car. The Fire Station was less than a mile away. Cell phone found. Family contacted. Brother and father beat the ambulance to the hospital. Sister enabled me to speak via cellular in the ER. Diagnosis, surgery, recovery and healing in process. Hero family! The good samaritan turned out to be a nursing student that knew better what to do. She followed the ambulance to the hospital.

My colleagues and classmates sustained me again as I struggled to work and learn apart from my family. Fortunately we all have the ability to choose how we encode memory from experience. Recalling heroism inspires and motivates me to make the most of each second.

Prior to moving, my former staff and lifelong colleagues at UCF made me an incredible tribute. The video is called Online Learning: A Life's Work and runs about 10 minutes. It illustrates how someone in the right place at the right time with the right support can ignite collaboration and team work that can create transformational positive change. Now I am in a position to help change the world. My Wordpress work page describes more about my professional activities if I get time to describe them!