my life 2007

I have many of these.

I'm trying to decide if I'm an exceptionally happy individual because I have a good life or because I have a good attitude. Or...perhaps my happiness and my life both hinge on my attitude. Hrm.

Anyhow...I love my job. I may have mentioned this a time or two before. I love the students I get to work with, as well. I've been doing a lot of EI (extra instruction), which is fabulous. Well...it's time-consuming, but I've hammered home with my cadets that they need to seek me out early if they aren't getting something, I can't read minds, and learning is their responsibility. So now, at a little over one month into the semester, they're regularly coming to get help (plus, I've begun simply telling them to see me for EI if they turn in a poorly-written paper). If this keeps up, they'll all pass my course easily.

The first bunches of papers this semester are so much better than most of the papers I read last semester. I have some natural writers, yes, but the papers, by and large, are so much better that I can't help but conclude that I'm figuring out how to teach.

Anyway. I have bunches of great kids this semester. Isn't it great when you love to go to work?

In other news, I began searching in earnest for my OPR (officer performance report) and medal citation from Gunter about a month ago. It's been almost 8 months since the close-out date (26 Jun 06, I think), and I've been insanely busy for most of that. When I did have time to think about it, I just thought the bureaucratic wheels were moving slowly.

I began at my current MPF (military personnel flight) and discovered that they didn't have my last OPR and dec. So I had them begin a search. AFPC (Air Force Personnel Center) didn't have it, either. Uh-oh. Bad news. So they called Maxwell AFB, which serves Gunter Annex. Maxwell said no OPR and dec had been submitted for me.

Oh no. So I forwarded the email in question to my last boss's boss (we didn't have the usual wing/squadron/flight divisions there), Lt Col McGinnis, asking her if she knew what happened to my OPR and dec. She didn't know they had been lost, so as soon as she learned this, she expedited both.

Today, the exec there sent me a copy of the OPR and dec they're sending to wing for signatures. As Lt Col McGinnis promised, they retained my stratification.

"Stratification" is yet another of a list of discriminators in the officer corps. If you're good enough, your boss or commander ranks you against your peers. (If you aren't that good, such as "#5 of 7!", they simply don't "stratify" you.) My boss stratified me #1 of 9 ops officers AND my commander stratified me #3 of 28 CGOs (company grade officers).

So I was thinking about Jerry today. Jerry was a good friend and "biking buddy" of mine when I was a teen. He was around 30, and thus made my parents a bit nervous, but that's unimportant right now. He worked for the International Paper plant in town, and continued working there after a huge "downsizing." And I know why. He worked regularly and steadily and produced results, and the company recognized it. I never thought much about how much Jerry impacted my life, but he did, and positively.

My family also has an impeccable work ethic. Of course they were a greater influence on me than Jerry, as I learned "strong work ethic," "dependability," and "responsibility" from the cradle. I don't mean to diminish their contribution in the least, but I was thinking of Jerry today, because he had the same ethic and I saw the direct, undeniable result of his ethic.

I do my job to the best of my ability, no matter what my job is. My greatest weakness is that I often don't know when it's prudent NOT to do something the best I can (although, the more responsibilities I take on, the more I learn to force myself to stop on the less important tasks). Generally, I live by the maxim that "good enough isn't."

It's paid off.

More good news: the SERB results are out. The SERB (selective early retirement board) met in January. The vulnerables were lieutenant colonels with over 20 years of service who'd been passed over twice for colonel. It's all part of the overall "force shaping" initiative, the same one that my RIF falls under. Turns out that none of the vulnerables at USAFA were SERB'd. Our superintendent (Lt Gen Regni), I'm sure, has a great deal to do with that.

What does this have to do with me? I'm part of the same select population. The RIF board will be composed of different officers, of course, but I'm sure the rules of engagement will be similar, if not identical.

However, with my "strats," I'm not really worried, anyway. As Lt Col Disler (who just learned today that she still has a job, as she was under the SERB threat) said, "With those strats, you're among the elite."

Icing on the cake: I learned today that my plagiarist is no longer a cadet. She has been disenrolled. It would seem the system, though slow and clunky, works.

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