CHAPTER 1

When One Door Closes

It may be an old adage, but that's because it's proven so often to betrue: when one door closes, another opens. It is imperative duringthese challenging times in Catholic school history that we remainpositive and focused on our goals.

Knowing ahead of time that we will inevitably face challengesand disappointments should prepare us to overcome these obstacleswhen they arise, and enable us to not give up too easily onachieving our goals.

A Secret to Happiness

One of the secrets to happiness as described in the book "TheFour Agreements," by Don Miguel Ruiz, is "Don't Take ThingsPersonally." It is a difficult goal to achieve for many of us whoinvest ourselves in such personal ways into the success of ourschools. We often put in exceptionally long hours and sometimessacrifice vacation time, holiday time, and even family time. Ittherefore becomes easy to associate what we do with who we are.That's a mistake. I learned that the hard way.

When I first became principal of St. Genevieve High School,I invested so much of my personal time in my job that I prettymuch gave up exercise, was on a steady diet of fast-food, allowedmy weight to balloon, couldn't sleep well, and became dissatisfiedwith how I looked and felt ... sound familiar, anyone? Finally, afterexactly six months on the job, my body shut me down — almostfor good.

On New Year's Eve of 1999, instead of celebrating Y2Ksurrounded by family and friends, I was in an emergency roomsurrounded by medical staff who were attempting to save my life.After more than 20 days in the hospital suffering from a seriousbout of pancreatitis, I emerged, wobbly and shaken, vowingto change my habits. Although my doctors believed I wouldnot survive, God had opened another door for me, and I wasdetermined to run through it.

I would change my habits. I would change my thinking.Had I died, it may have been a sad occasion for some, perhaps arelief for others, but the fact is, I would have been dead and allmy crazy hours would have added up to zero, and by now my sixmonth ministry at St. Genevieve High School would not evenbe a memory for most people. Balance. I needed to bring it backinto my life.

When the Worst ThingBecomes the Best Thing

I can remember clearly the searing pain I felt on the morningof December 31, 1999. It is the worst physical pain I have everexperienced. Yet it turned out to be one of the best things thatever happened to me.

When I got out of the hospital, I was barely able to walk up aflight of stairs, having been bed-ridden and connected to tubes foralmost a month. Once I learned that the diabetes I had acquiredalong with the onset of pancreatitis could have been preventedby proper diet and exercise, it got me to thinking: what kind ofa message do we send students if we are only preparing themacademically and socially for their futures? They might graduatefrom college, get high-paying jobs, drive the car of their dreams,and live in the big house on the hill, but what if they are notphysically fit? My near-death experience had taught me a valuablelesson; it was a lesson I wished I had learned earlier, say, in highschool or even grade school.

Exercise quickly became a regular part of not only my life,but also of the lives of all St. Genevieve High School students andstaff members. The entire staff agreed during the spring of 2000that we would implement an exercise program that fall requiringall students and staff to exercise at least three days a week, andpreferably, four.

Getting Creative to Get Fit

We have limited space and facilities — only one gym and twolocker rooms — so we had to get creative. We decided to pair upour teachers so there would always be two teachers working witha group of students. Since everyone would be exercising duringthe last period of the day, we didn't have the space nor the timeto spare to have everyone change into exercise clothes. So instead,we changed our traditional Catholic school uniform to AdidasWear. Students began wearing Adidas shorts and running pantswith our school's newly designed Valiant t-shirts. Now, no onehad to change from one set of clothes to another — the studentswere already dressed for exercise.

We began to see immediate results from our exercise program.One of the first — and most lasting — results is that when the finalbell of the day rings, there is still high energy on campus. Exerciseseems to rejuvenate students. Instead of the exhausted-lookingfaces we were accustomed to seeing, students were now leavingon an energy high. Some teachers, who decided to exercise alongwith the students, have expressed gratitude for providing themtime to become more fit during their workday. And a number ofstudents and teachers have reported dramatic weight losses sincewe began the program.

Exercise rejuvenates students

Over the years, there have been requests to replace the fitnessclasses with other classes or to use that time for other purposes.For the first three to four years, these requests were frequent;now, they are rare. We have established that the fitness class issomething that is a priority here, and have offered students avariety of fitness class choices, including ballroom dancing, salsadancing, hip-hop dancing, Pilates, yoga, hacky-sack, camp games,kickball, running, walking, biking, and more. When teachingcandidates are interviewing, they know up front that if they arehired to teach math...