Exactly a year ago I was halfway through the most insane summer of my life (thus far but hopefully forever). Courtney and I had been living with my in-laws for a month and a half while our house was being built (FWP, I know). I was working 7 days a week at a minimum of 12 hours a day and driving an hour each way to and from work. I felt like there was no end in sight and we were barely going to be able to open school with any of the necessary technology on time. I was doing so much that I'd never done before thus the work was the learning and the learning was the work. There was an abundance of frustration trying to make things work that I didn't know how to make work and advising vendors on things I had little to no expertise with all while thinking about the next ten things that I needed to get to. And yet I perservered and somehow was able to only use a minimal amount of shoestring and duct tape to get it all done.

Looking at where I'm at a year later is sobering. It's mid-June and I'm working normal hours, enjoying time with others socially and managing even more than last year with confidence. There's the three new buildings to prepare with infrastructure (one of which is a mere 131,000 sq ft), the count of over 2,000 machines to prepare, the 130% growth in scholar enrollment and almost 200 staff to support; yet I feel confident in our team. This summer is miles ahead of where we were last year. It really is amazing how much one solid additional person can bring to the amount of work that can be accomplished on a team.

The summer of 2012 will forever have a lasting impression on me as the summer that showed me what grit looks like.