One morning, as the COVID pandemic spread panic across the land, we were summoned to an all-hands. A couple hundred of us crammed into the Zoom meeting. Paul, our CEO, was weeping. Like heaving man-cry kind of weeping. They were tears of joy. He had just sealed a deal to merge our company with an organization called Guild Education.

A hush fell over the digital meeting room, as everyone's minds filled with terrible thoughts. I'm going to lose my job. We're all going to lose our jobs. Everyone is losing their jobs across America. People are dying in hospital corridors and in the streets. California is burning. Chaos.

I went spiraling down my own private mind-tunnel. Back to how this all started.

I went back, back to my teaching days. Oh, they were tough in the beginning. My first teaching gig was in a prison. Then I taught in a rough-and-tumble boy's technical school in the Persian Gulf. But then I kind of, well, fell in love with the profession. I went back to school and got my teaching cert, and eventually moved back home to teach in the cornfields and mountains of Pennsylvania.

Being a teacher was challenging and fun. I innovated. I took chances. I won hearts, minds, and awards. But the real action was in curriculum. 

I joined EdPlus, a groundbreaking network of charter schools, as a curriculum guy. In nine months, I worked my way up from humble writer to team leader to middle school program supervisor. But it turned out EdPlus was a little too innovative — it expanded beyond the grade levels outlined in the charter. 

The new Pennsylvania governor ran on a vow to crack down on charter schools, and crack down he did. EdPlus lost its funding and we all lost our jobs. Well, they kept me on as part of the admin skeleton crew to fire everyone else. Ten years on and I still hate to think of that day. 

I picked up the pieces, determined to design curricula with some of the coolest education organizations in America. And so I did, freelancing for two years. I learned how to listen to clients, understand their needs, and collaborate with teams of people distributed around the world.

But when I got the chance to work for Amplify, I jumped on it. Amplify was everything I thought it would be and more. I built digital learning products that went out to hundreds of thousands of students and their teachers. Talk about impact. Plus I got to lead my own projects and collaborate with teams of writers, SMEs, artists, editors, and others.

And then, blam. Governor Ron Desantis (what is it with me and governors?) woke up one morning, took Florida off the Common Core, and canceled all new curriculum purchases for at least a year and probably the year after that. 

Our team was assembled specifically to build digital learning experiences for Florida, and we were all out of work. It seemed bad luck was following me.

Before I even had the chance to cry in my (non-alcoholic) beer, I landed an opportunity with Amplify's sister-company, ProjectEd. I was back in business, now consulting for high-end education outfits, helping them refine their processes, fix their products, refine their curricula, and create top-level content. 

ProjectEd got sold to Entangled, which brought me back to the present. Paul was still crying.

Don’t worry. The new Guild was committed to keeping us all on, he said. Every one of us. We'd have the time and space we needed to find our place at Guild or move on when it was time. 

Now in spite of the name, Guild Education didn't have anything to do with curriculum, or anything else I'd been involved with before. I wasn't sure I'd find my place there. But it was the beginning of a long and terrible pandemic, and this was the worst possible time to look for work, and I had two kids who were about to go to college. 

The responsible choice was clear. This was no time for pride or pickiness. I would stay at Guild and make the best of it, find my new path, and make sure my family was taken care of. 

Soon, I had a new company, a new team, and a higher salary. And I had a fancy new title: UX Writer. There was just one problem. I had no idea what I was doing.

Over the coming days, weeks, and months, I absorbed every bit of information and training I could. I took classes, earned certificates, read books and compiled a little home library on UX writing and content design. I completed a certificate program in design thinking. I completed another on user testing and data analysis. I sought out challenging collaborations with my design colleagues. And after four years of dogged determination and constant learning, I can honestly say with confidence and pride that I am, at long last, an expert. 

The wheel of fortune turned again, as it will do. Guild unfortunately laid off a quarter of its force in May 2024. No, there weren’t any governors involved this time. I was chopped along with half of our design team, every one of them a super-pro at their jobs. I feel honored to have been among them, and grateful for everything Guild gave me. 

So make of my story what you will. Here's what I make of it: I am a journeyman writer, educator, and continuous learner who believes in the power of words to shape minds and change lives. I'm deeply loyal, caring, and constant. I take every setback as an opportunity and a gift, and I won't give up for anything.

Give me the chance and I’ll show you.