Kevin Johnson:
CLASS OF 1978
North Middlesex RegionalClass of 1978
Townsend, MA
University of New HampshireClass of 1986
Durham, NH
Shippensburg University - Graduate SchoolClass of 1984
Shippensburg, PA
University of TampaClass of 1982
Tampa, FL
Kevin's Story
Life
The lessons of life sometime take a lifetime to learn. In looking back over one's lifetime, you have the opportunity to view in perspective the twists and turns of fate. For my life, its never been the mourning over missed opportunities but more the truly wonderful relationship that I let slip through my fingers at a time when I was young. My life has been lived in taking every experience and never looking back - confident in having made the decision at the time that led me along the path that was meant to be. When it comest to finding a partner to share life with, the journey has lacked the certainty and conviction. Only in hindsight can I look back and wonder what might have been if only I had chosen differently. Weighing that against what and where I am in my life is made more difficult by the fact that I have two wonderful children who I love dearly and can't imagine not in my life...and that I live in a truly spectacular place doing something that I love...and if having chosen another interpersonal path, might never have discovered this reality...such is life and the decisions that we make along the path - leading to who knows where, but always granting the gift of looking back and wondering whether it could have been the same but different with someone else.
College
After NMRHS ventured to U. of Tampa for a biology degree and discovered after three years I hated the prospect of looking through a microscope for the rest of my life. I was active in Student Government, worked as a Resident Assistant (RA) for three years, and had a part-time job working in the on-campus pub. Because I was involved in the dorms as a Resident Assistant as a means to pay my way through college, I decided to continue working the dorms and get a Master's Degree in Counseling. This let me put off paying those student loans for a couple of more years.
After graduation, in an attempt to put off paying the student loans and because I refused to join the real world...I continued my education getting a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. A great experience that because I worked on campus as a hall director, I was given a stipend for full tuition, room & board, salary, and retirement benefits. How I fell into that deal, I still don't know.
Workplace
Out of college, I ended up at UNH working in the dorms. After two years got out of the college environment and went to work at an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Manchester, NH. Worked there for a few years, then started working with families that were court-ordered for family counseling. Neat experience going into families homes and working with them there to make changes in...Expand for more
their lives for the better, but high burnout.
After a short stint at this, I took the summer off to work at a summer camp progarm on Newfound Lake in Bristol, NH called Mayhew. Had a great summer as a camp counselor with 10-12 year old boys who were referred to the program by schools, courts, and concerned parties. These kids were at risk youth. After the summer ended up working at Beech Hill Hospital in Dublin, NH as a substance abuse counselor for young adult males. Was having a good time here, when Mayhew called me back and offered me a full-time year round position.
Working in an Outward Bound-like program during the summer on an island in the middle of Newfound Lake and then working with the boys and their families during the school year sounded like a lot of fun...and that was my life for the next five or six years. After a while even this got old, so I sought something new...
Ended up being hired as the director for a brand new drug & alcohol free teen night club. Unfortunately the board of directors wanted me to be a baby-sitter and not a director as they micromanaged me and I decided to leave the job after only six months.
Traveled for 6-months, x-country on a Greyhound bus staying at youth hostels and seeing the great U.S. of A. Niagra Falls, Mt. Rushmore, Seattle, San Francisco, Yosemite, Sequoia National Park, Grand Canyon, etc. Then came back and putzed around for a while...worked at a bowling alley, got laid off and collected unemployment, then landed a job as an Employee Assistance Professional (EAP) sort of a consultant, counselor, trainer, etc. for corporate clients and their employees and family members.
Ended up getting married, and having a couple of wonderful kids.
Loved the work and stayed at it for another 6 or 7 years. But reached the point where this was getting old...so I went to work at the Brattleboro Retreat in Vermont in the marketing department. A discipline that I knew absolutely nothing about, but convinced the V.P. of Marketing I could do anyway...hey he hired me...did this for a year until the hospital found itself swimming in red ink and they laid off the entire marketing department except for the V.P. (of course). Although, he got the axe a year later.
After that, I worked at a small convenience store down the road from the house we had bought...I had inherited some money do didn't have to work, but did so for the health insurance benefits and began looking for a motel to buy...Took nearly two years for us to find the Gale River Motel in Franconia, NH which we bought back in 2002. The wife decided she didn't want to be an innkeeper...I decided I did, so we divorced and today I run the motel by myself and am loving it.
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