The Divine Wind Vault: September 2012

Friday, September 28, 2012

First American-born

Since returning from Japan in July 2007, there has been a certain swing-for-the-fences feel and a hurried nature to my approach to things since I had much to prove to myself such as trying to accomplish a major life event. Now that this milestone has been achieved, I don't have the pressure that came with the journey to fatherhood. Most will say that I have most of my challenges ahead of me, I dare say that many of my challenges are in my rear-view mirror.

Madeline Ayako Stone was born on Friday, September 28th, 2012 at 10:25am in Columbus, OH. She was born nearly a month early at the weight of 6 lbs. and 14 oz. and is 19.5 inches long.

Being of Japanese-American ancestry, Maddie is the first American-born child on her mother's side of the family making her a Nisei (2nd Generation Japanese).

Nearly two and a half years have gone by and I finally am beyond the negative aspect of loosing the job that brought me to Columbus and was my family's bread-winning salary. We have survived the darkest season in my life and are doing better than ever in spite of everyone's best efforts at ELS Educational Services and Ohio Dominican University to derail me and my dreams.

No one should ever be put in the situation that I was put in which was spend the equivalent of one's paternity leave faced with the decision of "Do I accept ELS's offer of a neutral discharge and use them as a reference or accept the termination charge and collect unemployment and never use ELS as a reference?"

It was a no brainer to go the unemployment route since the ELS and Ohio Dominican names do not go very far and I argue that these organization actually sully one's reputation, not be an "employer of choice" and actually build people's resumes and add value to the stakeholders that they serve.

In closing, it is easy to learn of the good, proven, and proper examples of how to run a business, adapt and adjust to change management, and lead an organization. Then there are the bad, unproven, and improper examples. Unfortunately, those bad examples are hard to find at the local Barnes and Noble, and are rarely discussed at your area university. But, by searching "ELS" and "Ohio Dominican" you will get the tip of the iceberg in terms of the bad examples. The reason why the bad examples are so hard to find is that those bad examples have to be first-hand experience that one experiences by walking the walk and talking the talk.

So, the next time someone shares their experience of the joy of starting a new family, just remember the guy from South Carolina who took his simplistic approach which worked to a fault and applied it to the "Charlie Foxtrot" of the "ELS Experiment" at Ohio Dominican University. He ended up out of a job and having to collect unemployment instead of receiving paternity leave. But, don't feel sorry for him or sing a sad song, because he is better than ever because of it. Those that were actively or inactively involved will be the ones crying in the end.