Mary Crovetti-Avalos:
CLASS OF 1978
Lake Forest High SchoolClass of 1978
Lake forest, IL
Deerpath Junior High SchoolClass of 1974
Lake forest, IL
Deerpath Junior High SchoolClass of 1972
Lake forest, IL
Gorton School SchoolClass of 1970
Lake forest, IL
Cherokee Elementary SchoolClass of 1968
Lake forest, IL
Mary's Story
Life
Recently re-married, relocated and now living in Arizona. Finishing my career in education and will be doing general part-time work in the future as well as being a mother to my kids and a wife. Hopefully my husband and I will be able to do a lot of traveling once he decides to retire, but we need to get our youngest to finish hihg school and off to college first. Life is quiet but exciting at the same time and looking forward to many more fun-filled years in the future with my family.
School
My best school experience was having my best friend there for me all through school. I was just glad to graduate, get away from there, and get on with the next stage of my life. I wish I had stood up for myself more, stood up to the jerks, and actually fought back a little. It would have been worth it getting myself in trouble over fighting back, and maybe getting into trouble a little bit more...but water under the bridge...
I discovered more of who I was in college and came into my own...no more looking back.
College
The best part of college was being on my own, going where I wanted with who I wanted, when I wanted, etc...It was nice to be independent, be far enough away from home to do what I wanted and needed, but still be able to get home for holidays and such if I chose to go home. I was in college when my best friend got married and moved overseas, when John Lennon was shot ( remember exactly where I and what I was doing), and I had a few significant "firsts" occur in my life while I was at college as well. The one and only time I drank so much that I puked my guts out was at college(haven't touched the stuff since), found another best friend in college and spent many a day and evening in the dorm cafeteria drinking our coffee with chocolate milk. the there were the late-night pizza orders on occasion, staying up all studying, talking, playing games, etc...
Graduate school was much different. Between being a residence hall advisor, and studying, I didn't have much time for anything else, and then there was the bi-monthly traveling back to the university for support class supervision while doing my internship...geesh! I think I...Expand for more
have state route 57 burned into my memory
The one regret I have is not going to school further away. I think it would have shaped my life in a very different way, but then I might not be in the wonderful place I'm in now.
Workplace
Besides the summer jobs in between college years, I went directly from my undergraduate degree to graduate school where I received my masters degree in school social work. I worked for a year afterwards as a teacher's aid to special needs kids before landing my job as a school social worker at Woodland School District in Gurnee, Illinois. Lots of changes occurred in the 18 years I was there, but mainly the problems the kids experienced stayed the same. You name it, I dealt with it...my first phone call to DCFS was a sexual abuse case...they convicted the scum. I often think about how the kids turned out that I worked with. I've been blessed to know that if I helped just one child, I was doing my job well. The hardest part was making those phone calls dealing with abuse, the pain-in-the-butt part was dealing with a lot of the idiots out there who think they are qualified to be parents and had no business reproducing in the first place! They have been and are raising disrespectful, spoiled little brats who don't know the meaning of the word "no", demand to have everything now, and have some of the foulest attitudes I've ever seen! I'd love to take some of these parents as well as their kids and string them up for a few lessons in decency and morality...but I digress...
The best part of the job is seeing the smile on the kids' faces when they've been listened to and you've helped solve their problem...and a lot of the time it's by playing games! What better way to spend your day than playing games with kids like "Sorry", "Chutes and Ladders", or "Jenga", just to teach a kid how to listen, follow directions, share, take turns, develop coping skills and problem-solve! Absolutely wonderful! I can always be a kid!!!
So now I find myself out here in Arizona - wrapping up my only year in the schools as a counselor and I'm "retiring". I will enjoy the life of working part-time as....whatever I decide to do!
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