Susan Holt:
CLASS OF 1977
Traverse City High SchoolClass of 1977
Traverse city, MI
Grand Valley State UniversityClass of 1981
Allendale, MI
Northwestern Michigan CollegeClass of 1980
Traverse city, MI
Traverse City West Junior High SchoolClass of 1974
Traverse city, MI
Long Lake Elementary SchoolClass of 1971
Traverse city, MI
Susan's Story
Written June 2010
(I CAN'T SEE MY GUEST BOOK - FIND ME ON FACEBOOK: SUSAN STRICKER HOLT, to contact me. Thanks)
I worked at a Day Care Center in TC for one year after graduating from high school. Then took two years at NMC. I then transferred down to Grand Valley State University near Grand Rapids, MI. I received a BS degree in Psychology, majoring in special education and minoring in regular elementary education.
I met my husband (Eric Holt) at a local church that I attended while going to college. We settled down in the Grand Rapids area and have 5 children (ranging from 26 years to 17 years). I worked for 3 years at Godwin High School (Wyoming, MI) as a reading teacher. Then I worked part time at our church as a secretary until our third child was born. I decided to stay home full-time at that point.
I homeschooled our kids for 9.5 years and then in January 1999 they started attending a charter school in Kentwood, MI (SE side of Grand Rapids). I started working as a paraprofessional (teacher's aide) in the Fall of 1999 at another charter school. Both schools were a part of the National Heritage Academies. I stayed at Cross Creek Charter Academy until the end of the 2007-2008 school year. In August of 2008 I started working as a customer service rep. at Vredevoogd Heating & Cooling in Grandville, MI, answering phones and scheduling appointments. The career move was a financial one. I will always miss working with kids, since that was the only thing I had ever done and I loved it.
The financial reason was due to my husband getting permanently laid off from a company he had been with almost 20 years. We were living comfortably with his income and my small addition as a school aid (paid only during the school year). He was on unemployment for only a few months before he found another job doing the exact type of work he had been doing. With the economy the way it was in 2003, the new company didn't feel they needed to offer him what he had been making. My husband accepted the job, but had to start out at the bottom of the pay scale. He also had to drive 30 min...Expand for more
utes to a neighboring city and work nights. What a crushing blow. I stayed at the school a few more years and even started working part time at the Sylvan Learning Center tutoring. I even had a couple students I tutored on the side, but I didn't like spreading myself so thin. I worked all day at the school and then tutored most nights until around 7:30 pm. That was when I started looking for a different job. I am still at Vredevoogd Heating & Cooling at this time (2010).
We had a huge change in our lives in 2004. Our son Josh, who was almost 16 at the time, was hit by a car while rollerblading. He is paralyzed from the lower ribs down. He has learned to live life from a wheelchair and is now engaged to be married next year (June 2011). He still has some struggles, but all in all, he is doing much better than he did those first few years after the accident.
Our oldest son, Caleb, is in the Navy and has done some great things. His ship helped evacuate the Americans in Lebanon back in 2006 and his ship was also involved with the pirates along Somalia the first time we heard about them in 2008. He has been in the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Indian Ocean, and along Somalia. He has visited in Greece, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Africa, Dubai, Bahrain, Seychelles (in the Indian Ocean), etc. He has seen much more of the world than I ever will. We are so proud of him. I have pictures of his ship as it arrived back in Virginia after a deployment. That was so exciting to his see his ship come in.
Our next child is Grace. She is married, but still living with us. Her husband got laid off and she works at a day care center nearby. They will stay with us until he can find a job.
The next one is Josh, who I have already mentioned. Kristi is still looking for work and Isaiah (our youngest) just finished his junior year of high school. So, we almost have them all out of high school. No grandchildren yet, but looking forward to it. Grace babysits a lot for 2.5 year old twin boys, and they are like my grandchildren. Life is good!
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