David Francisco:  

Life Met the miracle that made my life complete in May of 1965; not the person I could live with….but the person I couldn’t live without! It was simultaneously the most fortuitous and serendipitous happening of my life!; basketball quickly moved into a very distant second place; she was 16 and the embodiment of heaven; I was 17 and, suddenly, nothing else mattered; it was literally the proverbial love at first sight! (she had me at "Hi!"); the attraction was instantaneous, impossible to miss, exciting and intense, totally unexpected, growing quickly to unconditional status where it remains absolutely true to this day; this miracle's name was Maryjane and my life was changed forever; corny as it may sound, I had found my soul mate!; she attended the Academy of St. Aloysius and I was hooked!; marriage followed a little over 4 years later and was blessed with 3 loving daughters, Elizabeth, Melissa, and Jane; 3 additional marriages have added 7 more blessings that we call grandchildren who answer, sometimes, to the following names: Zachary, Catherine, Alexander, the twins Amanda and Emma, Nicholas and Cecelia Jane….pieces of work all!; we have essentially daily interaction with these true gifts from God; "What's-Her-Name" and I wouldn't be able to identify anything that we would rather be doing with our time and energies; and that is beautiful!; bleed dat! As the years zip by, I want to acknowledge what has become, for me, an increasingly apparent truth: there exists nowhere on earth a place that I could go nor price I could pay for the very life I have the privilege of living each day with the freedoms that we have in this blessed country. I am fortunate and rich beyond all expectation. I will, with a sense of profound gratitude and humility, try to maintain this animus until my mission here is complete. I do, however, reserve the right to have as many laughs as I can enroute. School Absolutely and without question the most inspiring teacher I had during 8 years in OLV was Sister Anna Marion; you either got inspired or you bled! (your choice!); although I didn't enjoy it at the time, I would suggest that her pedagogic techniques induced changes in my behavior that may not have occurred otherwise; for that I am truly appreciative; also, it was very challenging to seek the correct balance between being caught as a transgressor of some rule and actually causing someone else to become the focus of her wrath for a similar violation (I didn't say she cured me of my wise guy antics!); it was a fine line...and many of us willingly and warily walked it...some amongst us raised it to an art form! I attended Marist High School for freshman year at the insistence of the previously mentioned Sister Anna Marion. I discovered that Marist had a very large supply of 'inspirin' instructors, more than willing to inspire you whenever they thought you needed 'inspirin!'; in fact, they enjoyed 'inspirin' you more than just about anything else!; at the end of the year, I was inspired to go to Snyder High School and off I went. I had been regaled with many a story by public high school friends about what they got away with in the public school school domain and I couldn't wait to get started! I was assigned to HR 301 with Giacomo Restivo...my bad!; "like" it was lucky you could breathe in there (my personal all-time favorite line was the following gem: "I'll spri...Expand for more