GranolaBox

My name is Rob Coats. And this is my blog.

As I progress into my 40’s, I’ve become increasingly aware of the need to start living a more sustainable lifestyle on both a personal and professional level. As I move forward in life, I’m finding that changes in my lifestyle like sobering up and moving from the city to a small town have made life much more worth living. This blog is a way for me to reach my inner hippie as I pursue a crunchier lifestyle. I’ve included sections for all the things I’m passionate about.

For my first ten years I grew up all over the world following my Dad around the world as he fought the cold war in the Army. This makes me an Army Brat. While I never really had any martial aspirations growing up on Army bases as the son of a war hero, Sergeant, then Sergeant Major, and then Command Sergeant Major had a really good affect on me growing up.

The next ten years I spent in a small town in the Adirondack Mountains of Northern New York in a little town called Saranac Lake. Another ideal place to live… as an adult. Much of the natural beauty and quiet lifestyle was wasted on me since I couldn’t wait for the day I could get the hell out. It didn’t seem like there was much to do there as a teenager except go to school, work at my Dad’s hardware store and party on weekends.

I went to college at the venerable State University of New York College of Arts and Sciences at Potsdam. I’d wanted to be a teacher since I was ten years old so I majored in Education and History. I debated whether to be a French teacher or Social Studies teacher, and chose Social Studies because the History department faculty was much cooler than the foreign language department. They let students drink beer at their Christmas parties, and sat around badly singing old, bad IWW songs.

While in college I spent a great deal of time on yet a third major, Recreational Pharmacology. While I managed to avoid any classes involving science labs I did a great deal of experimenting in other areas which fueled a decades long, self-destructive search for the better buzz. I have a lot of fond memories of college, and made some great lasting friendships, but very few of the highlights involved sober moments.

One thing I took seriously in college was student teaching, and based on my performance I was able to land a job right out of college in a town south of Rochester, New York. I had an impossible teaching load, and the guy who had the job before me wanted it back, so oddly enough I got fired at the end of my first year.

Vowing never to set foot in a classroom again I pursued a new career in academia with a graduate assistant ship from the State University of New York College of Arts and Sciences at Brockport. There I majored in History but still dabbled in Recreational Pharmacology under the tutelage of my drug-dealing next door neighbor. I also got the opportunity to team teach a course with one of my professors and it reawakened my desire to teach high school.

I married my college sweetheart and had two beautiful children. (referred to as Medium and Large in pictures) Kids made her grow older and more stiflingly responsible whereas I remained preoccupied with my search for the better buzz, which by this point had become a search for a more consistent buzz. We divorced, I remarried, and lo and behold the same thing happened again except we only had one kid. (small, in pictures)

Throughout this though I managed to pursue my dream of being a teacher and devoted all of my sober moments to teaching and am, in all honesty, a really good teacher. I’m one of the few people who love my job as much or more than the day I started. I teach in a medium sized suburban high school outside of Rochester, NY. I’ve taught every subject from grades 7-12 but have most recently devoted my professional energy to teaching US History and being the Chair of my department, and all the administrivia that that implies.

I’ve had around three years of sobriety now, and the most wonderful life I could ever hope to have, and it’s getting better each and every day. I met the most wonderful woman in the world through online dating and for some inexplicable reason she agreed to marry me. She’s a technological genius, extremely worldly and well-read, a successful entrepreneur, an amazing cook, a natural food snob, a loving stepmother and… oh yeah… she’s HOT.

This blog is my creative outlet for everything I’ve spent 42 years becoming. So welcome to my world. Come in and relax, read, look at pictures and check out the other blogs in my blogroll. Most of all, feel free to share your thoughts whether you agree with me or not.