Saturday, June 27, 2009

Max Thatcher

What I've been Up to Since High School

Well, as most of you know, I left High School my senior year and went out on my own and moved to Montana. Anaconda, MT to be exact. I enrolled at the Job Corps up there because I knew that I wasn't doing so well in regular high school and needed a little bit of a change. I spent about a year and a half up there and if anyone knows anything about Job Corps, you go there to get your GED and also a trade. I majored in Business, and Heavy Equipment/Semi Truck Maintenance. (Yes, the Max Thatcher that roamed the halls of high school in a suit and tie, majored in that. Don't worry, I found it strange as well.) My intuitions were right about doing better up there than in high school. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA.

After graduating Job Corps, I moved back down to the EC and ultimately, moved down to Farmington, New Mexico with Jeffery Behling to pursue my Mortuary career. After doing what I loved for 2 1/2 years, I moved once again back to the EC and thought I could easily find a job up there. Wrongo Bongo. I then one more time moved up to the Salt Lake City area, (as so many of us do) and worked in a Hotel for a while as the Night Auditor, while going to school during the day to get my Commerical Driver's License, strictly as a fall back career, never thinking I would use it.

While working at the hotel, I found "The love of my life" and after about a year of her pushing to get married, Max decided that being married is NOT for him let alone being in a relationship. We then went our seperate ways.

The Hotel got slow, so low and behold, I had to use that little plastic thing in my wallet to feed my belly. After overcoming a brief illness, I have finally settled back down and got back into my groove in this semi truck. I currently work for James H. Clark and Son Trucking out of Murray, UT, and I dont think I have ever been treated so well by an employer in my whole life. We run Refrigerated freight, mainly the 11 westen states, and occasionaly we run out to Georgia and Tennessee and then straight back. While typing this I am currently sitting in Ontario, CA waiting to get unloaded in the morning.



Just a few words before I close: Trucking is not what anyone, including myself, thought that I would be doing with my life, however, the wonderful thing about this beautiful, wide open, limit-less country is, we are free to choose, and make our decisions about how we shape our future. My advice to everyone is, never, never, never give up on your dreams, no matter how far-fetched they may seem. If you have children, or are planning on having children, teach them well, and let them know how wonderful and special they are each and everyday. Let them know that in order to succeed in this life, they must be the best they can be, and to please, please stay in school. It will make their quest in life so much easier.You can take a look at my blog at http://www.truckmax.blogspot.com/ and if anyone would like to get in touch with me, my contact information is on the blog, as well as on Facebook.
Thanks again.

--Max

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

LuAnn (Roundy) Powell

What I've Been Up To Since High School

Life is definitely a lot different than it was in the good ol' days living in Emery County.

After high school I went to CEU and lived in Sessions! It was a lot of fun and I made a lot of good friends. Next, I was on to BYU where I earned my bachelors in MFHD. I lived in the University Villa and loved it! When I wasn't studying I was playing with friends up provo canyon, hiking to the Y, hot tubbing or watching movies. After graduating from BYU I promptly went to selling drugs for Wal-Mart for about 2 years. The pharmacy there was fun but wanting to switch things up I moved up to Salt Lake and started working for the U in the Redwood Pharmacy. I loved all the people I got to meet while I worked in the pharmacy (even a few of the crazy druggies!) and it was a great job to have while I worked on my master's degree. After graduating in '02 (high school!) '03 (CEU) '04 (BYU) I decided to slow things down and didn't finish up my master's degree until '08. I got my masters in psychology from USU and then decided I wanted to go to pharmacy school. After about a semester of 6-8 hours a night of homework I decided that sticking to counseling was a great idea!

I got a job as a school counselor in Escalante UT (another EHS - Escalante High School) - which is kind of by Panguitch and Bryce Valley. It was an incredible learning experience being the counselor of 100 kids grades 7-12 in a town of 800 people but I decided that living in the middle of no-where (Emery County is a busting metropolis compared to Escalante...) was not my favorite thing. Luckily I got hired as a counselor through UVU at East High School in Salt Lake. Sticking with EHS - East High School has worked pretty good for me so far. I went from a school with around 15 kids per grade to a high school with 500-600 students per grade. I love working at East because I have a lot of amazing kids.

Another cool change that happened since high school is that I met and married my best friend. My name is now LuAnn Powell and my husband's name is Jonathan. He just graduated from the UofU in film studies. He is an animator and will be applying for internships with Disney, Pixar, Dream Works and other companies this fall. It has been so fun to help him make his animations and see how much work goes into making both computer generated and 2D cartoons. When we aren't working we like to play guitar hero/rock band, watch movies, go swimming and read books together. We just bought our first home in Salt Lake and I love it!


Andrea Cox

What I've been up to since High School

Well, a whole lot of MORE school. Bwahahaha... ha... ha.. cricket chirp. Since graduating from EHS, I've ALSO graduated from Snow College and the University of Utah (Go Utes!). I done studied the English (in honor of Mrs. Wakefield naturally) and the French (in honor of Coach Dean); getting my secondary English teaching license (in honor of JR) of which I used for about 2 months at a Charter School in Salem, Utah until they laid us all off. Good times in 2007. Stupid 2007. I did a study abroad in London for 2 months in there somewhere, and after a smattering of failed job attempts and even more attempts at fleeing the country again, I finally work at Utah System of Higher Education in downtown SLC and plan on going back for yes, you guessed it, more education at the University of Utah this Fall 2009. Gonna get ye olde MPA (Masters in Public Administration) and get paid to boss people around, rock political boats, rally for education reform, and generally save the world from our apathetic selves. That's the plan anyway - but most things don't tend to go as planned. I guess there in lies the rub.

Hmmm. Not married. Thanks for wondering so loud. I could hear it all the way from here. Sheesh. Not dating at the moment - aaaaaand really - not too worried about it yet... or still. Whichever. I don't feel I need to tell all of you, my dear friends, about me because I am still me and you know me. Me me. Me. Planet-me. But I still read. I still write. I play the sports and have recently gotten into Ultimate Frisbee a good deal. I made a chalkboard the other day so lets go ahead and say I "craft" and I actually have acquired a joy for cooking. So there's a domestic habit to be amused by. Oh! I've got something! I have a cat. There ya go! She is called Lila. You've now confirmed the image of me in your head of "Oh that Andrea Cox... I always knew she'd go into education and come out the crazy hippie cat lady who shops with cloth bags and uses such phrases as "rally for education reform" and "Free Tibet." She prolly voted for Obama too (Yes, I can.. or did, rather)." Well... I'd hate to disappoint you... so go ahead and hang on to that image. It's pretty accurate I guess - though I want you to know I don't own a Prius... not yet.

Rock on 2002.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Jace LeRoy

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO SINCE HIGH SCHOOL

Well I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life after high school, so I did what anyone else would do who wasn't sure, I went to college. I moved to Price to go to CEU (duh) and over the course of two years there I lived with Chad Bingham, Matt Beatty, Spencer Westwood, Max Thatcher, Daniel Farr, Tim Arnold, Mark Olsen, Sam Lloyd, Jessie VanWagoner and possibly some others that I can't remember. Needless to say I was in good Emery County company.

While attending CEU I was arrested for stealing computers, although it sounds so much worse than it really was. Mostly it was a misunderstanding, well sort of. Anyway, I graduated from CEU with an Associate in Science and moved to Orem to go to UVU.

So at the age of 21 I had finally realized I wanted to do Film. I pursued a degree in Digital Media/Film and graduated with my Bachelors in December of 2008. I have worked on two Disney Films (Halloween Town, and High School Musical 2), along with this I have also worked on many other projects for local businesses. I am currently working for a company called Blufrog in Provo. We make commercials, Dvd's, Web Videos, Documentaries and pretty much anything else people want us to make. Most recently I was the Project Manager for an upcoming documentary about a local charity organization called “In Our Own Quiet Way” who raises money for children in Kenya Africa.

So here I am 5 years+ after high school working as a camera man/editor/photographer and I am loving it. Time isn't slowing down, rather it seems to be speeding up. I very much enjoy small city living, although I still love the outdoors and the “Emery way of life”. Who knows what the next 5 years will bring, but I hope it's as productive as the last. Maybe I should concentrate on getting married? Lol ;)