As I wander the halls during seventh period, I am a curious observer of the hum inside the rooms and offices. Students prepare to leave, and teachers lock their doors. A thought occurs to me: what do all of these teachers do when they leave the building? I am not naive enough to think they live at school, yet I couldn’t imagine how a teacher might spend the weekend, and most pressing, does Mr. O’block really skydive?
I gnaw at this desire to understand and reveal what teachers do and who they are when not in front of a whiteboard. So I set out with a mission and a mystery. I did not talk to every teacher; nonetheless, of the ones I had asked, I learned not only about their lives but also their projects, philosophies, and passions.
Mr. O’Block, one of the school’s physics teachers, is often described as a “mini administrator” due to his involvement at Boulder High spanning beyond the subject of physics. Mr. O’Block, over the past handful of years, told me he has been “climbing, and [he] just bought a motorcycle.” With his new ride, he has been “doing some touring, packing it up with big containers and doing two or three-day camping adventures.” Mr. O’Block describes himself, saying, “ I am kind of like a cautious, [yet] responsible person who does all these extreme hobbies.”
Mr. O’Block’s most extreme adventures tend to put his life in the hands of physics—although not “currently active,” he has his skydiving license and his own parachute. “ I know how to pack it… and [have] 114 jumps, which in the skydiving world is nothing.” Outside of tempting the rules of gravity, he practices Muay Thai and jujitsu, has experience playing the violin, and enjoys playing video games, particularly physics-based video games, such as Kerbal Space Program. This last summer, Mr. O’Block and Mr. Mydans took “two weeks in Yosemite, and did a week of climbing in the valley and… attempted to climb El Capitan,” the famous California rock formation.
Mr. Mydans, a biology teacher and anatomy teacher, has been a rock climber for 31 years and has guided others for over 20 years. He spends his time as an avid outdoorsman, as well as an outdoors educator, teaching rock climbing, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing avalanche courses. He has climbed all around the world, from the French Alps to the mountains of Patagonia to Denali in Alaska. Mr. Mydans elaborated on his love for the sport by saying, “You can basically choose to have an adventure on any given day.” He continues, “I fully believe rock climbing saved my life because not only is it physical and it’s a challenge, but it also really helps you to develop mental toughness and resilience.”
Mr. Wildstein is most known for teaching AP Language and 11th-grade English. Mr. Wildstein, in addition to his job, also informed me: “I play bass guitar… I don’t have a band. I am just playing it and writing songs.” If anyone reading this has or knows of a band that needs a writer/bass guitarist, Mr. Wildstein is an excellent candidate. His interest in music extends beyond the confines of genre, saying, “I listen to jazz music; I listen to indie rock music; I listen to classical… all of that influences my music that I play.”
Frequent readers of the Owl may remember Ms. Wilson’s introduction as the new pottery teacher, her background with ceramics, and her interest in art. Ms. Wilson emphasized her time spent as a parent, stating,“ I have a seven-year-old daughter, so I’m mostly hanging out with her, doing fun things… I like to create art too, I like to go hiking, and watch movies.” Specifically, she watches scary movies, but she told me, “honestly, a lot of my weekends are [at the school], working on stuff, whether that’s cleaning or organizing or making something fun.” Besides her art and school work, she is most proud of her daughter, telling me how it is “amazing to see them become their own little people, and be kind to people, and make mistakes and be okay.”
It’s important to have an activity you love and stick to it, whether it be a Mydans-esque climbing odyssey, or an O’blockian leap of faith in the sky, a Wilson-like shaping of art, or a Wildsteinian crafting of songs. In the words of Mr. Mydans, these activities are “the things that keep you going…the stuff that you love that keeps you young.”
