Kendall Waldock:
CLASS OF 1989
Plantation High SchoolClass of 1989
Plantation, FL
Kendall's Story
Life
Where to begin? Some of you will believe it when I say that these 4,000 characters seem insufficient. Anyway, you check out the college and workplace pages for information on those topics. Here, I will detail where I've been and what I am up to now. I went straight to FSU after graduating from PHS. Quickly met a beautiful brunette that I dated, broke up with, dated, got engagaged to (I called it off), got back together with, broke up with, got engaged to again (she broke it off) and finally ended things for good. That took up undergrad and Law School (at UF), basically most of the 90's. We still stay in touch. She is living in Boca and raising a son on her own from a subsequent relationship that ended with a tragic death. She finished her PHD in Psychobiology (ironic, as people used to tell her she was "Psycho" for staying with me for so long despite our roller-coaster relationship) and last time I checked she is teaching at a local college. Which is great considering she has a horrible fright of speaking in front of crowds (those of you that remember me know that I never have a problem talking no matter the size of the audience, I have quite the opposite problem, actually).
Anway, she recuperated from our failed romance much quicker that I have. I stayed out of the dating pool at the end of the 90's and for the first part of this decade, but eventually found myself in the "scene" again and have dated with decidedly mixed results the last couple of years. Current status: confirmed bachelor.
Outside of working I am still a musician. Not the trombone touting band geek you may remember. I took up the guitar in law school and actually took lessons from the man who wrote the curriculum for the Guitar Institute of Technology in California (long story on how he came to be teaching out of a tiny vintage music shop in Gainesville). Lead is my forte, I guess I'm getting to do all of those solos now that trombone players watch the rest of their band mates do in school.
I've been with the same band for the last ten years now. Our style has been described as everything from "original rock" to "seventies-influenced rock" to "progressive rock" and even occassionally "alternative rock." Bottom line, we're an all originals only group that people like, but can't quite define. The lead singer is a superior rhythmn player, so I spend more time playing fills than actually playing rhythmn myself. The drummer could give Neal Peart in Rush a run for his memory and also has a great voice. The bass player is a prodigy, 'nuff said.
We don't gig much, and we don't record much, even though we have 60+ originals and have invested in over ten grand worth of our own recording equipment. We have 6 songs down, none of which are close to being finished. Some of my friends that haven't heard us wonder why I bother. The truth is, we're tighter now then we've ever been. Lately, even during our most basic 4 chord songs, we've been able to shift on a dime and go into extended jamming sessions. I'm talking about the four us suddenly knowing on an unconcious level that we are going to take an old, reliable song in a completely new direction. No cues, no planning, just instincts honed from years of playing together and knowing each other.
I have had a chance to hang out with 3 of the 7 members of the current Allman Brothers Band lineup, but it never occurred to me to ask them how it felt when they were improvising on the spot and still sounding like they had done that very thing a thousand times before. Now I don't have to because I know exactly how it feels.
Anywho, that's what I've been up to. I sit in as a guest lead player for 3 different cover bands in the area, which allows me to meet female admirers from time to time. Not really a recommended way to start a relationship, since there is usually nothing else in common except the love of the music, but it beats looking for love online!
Drop me a line if you want to catch up!
College
Went to Florida State for undergrad: Go Seminoles! Got a BS in Human Resources Management. Was there for the first National Title in football.
Went to UF for Law School. Hated it! Hated the gaytors, Steve "Superior" and most of the law students, with some very important exceptions. Graduated, but had a GPA similar to Belushi's character from Animal House. Took the bar on a lark without studying at all, but didn't pass (came close though). Never, never wanted to practice law. Also didn't want to work coming straight out of undergrad while I figured out where Debbie was going to go for grad scho...Expand for more
ol, so law school seemed a good option given how well I aced the LSAT (second in the state year). Ironically, my best bud in law school was also a seminole alumni, had the number one score in the state on the LSAT, and was the next rank higher then me gpa-wise when we graduated.
If any of you have kids nearing law school age, don't let them be discouraged by a poor showing on the LSAT as long as they get in, and warn your kids if they score really well, because as a predicter of law school success, the test is utterly worthless.
The only good thing about having a law degree that you never use is that people assume you are smarter than you really are. I also probably started higher-up the corporate ladder in HR simply due to having one.
For those that remember me as a huge Band Geek, that never changed. Was one of only 3 non-music majors to play in the school of music's jazz and concert bands. Always second chair to boot. Ticked off the upperclassmen that I beat out early on, and the youngsters coming into the school of music when I was an upper classman. Dumped the Trombone for Guitar in Law School. Actually lived with a rock band for 2 of the 3 years. They were mostly made up of engineering grad students and we threw some awesome graduate level mixers (really keggers) that brought the law school crowd and the rest of the grad school crowds together at our house. And for some reason, we were rarely hassled by the cops despite having people in the front and back yards and kick-ass live rock bands playing into the wee hours of the morning in a neighborhood pretty well removed from campus. Sort of managed the band in terms of making sure drunk sound guys at bars weren't ruining the mix and was frequently asked to critique their new songs. Still keep in touch with the bass player on occassion. After all, I introduced him to his wife at one of the mixers with the law school kiddies. He's a coastal engineer in S.C. and she's a real estate attorney. Think their little girl is going to be a genuis some day? I wouldn't bet against it.
Workplace
I've been in Human Resources for over 10 years now. Worked for a major bank, a Fortune 500 data processing company, two healthcare companies and finally, a staffing and "headhunter" firm, since I really seem to excell at recruiting.
I just left the firm I've been with for the last 4 1/2 years to joing a start-up venture. On the surface, this might seem like a risky move. However, the President of the firm is someone I once hired. He is a first-rate strategic planner and is one of the most connected businessmen in all of Kansas City. Those connections alone mean that sales isn't an issue for our new group.
The minority owner and Treasurer of the firm is the man I have worked for directly for the last 4+ years. No one knows how old he is, I would guess somewhere in his late 70's. He owns the #4 staffing firm in K.C., the combined branches are easily worth over 10 million. I believe that after 30 years of owning this company, he is finally ready to sell and focus his attention on this new company. So we have connections, experience and deep pockets. What are we doing with that? The three of us have basically come up with a new Internet based Recruiting service that appears to be the first of its kind in the world. I am the Operations Manager (the #2 position in the firm) and head up all the recruiting efforts. We've got clients lining up at the door and are seriously contemplating franchising this business model in the not too distant future.
I am looking into buying some stock so I can have a piece of the action if this thing takes off as well as the early indications have been. Can't go into too many details about how we do it, the headhunting industry has been slumping for a while now and I don't want to give away any of our secrets to someone looking for a new angle to increase business again. Suffice it say that if you are good at what you do, and have any kind of "footprint" on the Internet, my Recruiters and I can and will find you if we have a client looking for someone with your particular talents. Some of my Recruiters have referred to me as "Neo", wondering if I am actually physically plugged into the 'Net like he was to the Matrix.
Oddly enough, I spend so much time on the Internet and studying how it can be used ever more effectively as a tool for recruiting, that I rarely spend any time on it away from work. Thus, you will not not find the ubiquitous MySpace page or any other "footprint" about me not related to recruiting. Except for here that is!
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