Shortly after graduation I began to explore academia. I attended Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and received a Degree in Psychology (BA) with honors in 2012.  In and outside of class I formed interesting bonds with a small group or cohorts, and together we administered the TRU Psychology Club to fundraise for APS Conference trips around North America.  In 2009 (San Francisco, CA), 2010 (Boston, MA), and 2011 (Washington, DC) we traveled to present research and immerse ourselves in psychological knowledge.

Attending these conferences demonstrated the unending herd of knowledge, the breadth of inquiry, and the innumerable angles of interpreting analytical data.  I witnessed an insatiable desire to “know,” whatever that is, and discovered we need only pick the members of our pack to strategically take down even the biggest of predators.  Wolves are pack animals. One alpha, one omega.  This isn’t to say that there is always one leader while the rest follow.  This is to elucidate the idea that we can all become alphas through acts of service to each other as omegas.  Hence, my teaching metaphor and tagline “Alpha Through Omega.”

Looking back to these trips I realized that teaching wasn’t what I wanted to do.  “Teaching,” I think, implies a classroom, a specific way of learning, a certain way of knowing or even a bridge into social conformity.  I couldn’t identify with that term, as much as it described the profession I wished to pursue.  What I wanted was something free-running that I could feel and belong to.  What I really wanted was to become an “Educator”.

Educating, education, something big, all encompassing, that’s what I was searching for.  Anything and everything, everywhere, every way.  Even now words aren’t enough to explain the intangible.  What is the feeling of joy that accompanies the knowledge of how to elevate another pack member?  Where does the ability of simply looking at someone, and figuring out what their missing piece is, come from?  How is it that we come to know in the first place? How then do I communicate with youth, youngsters, or pack members the things they need to become better knowers?  All the answers to these questions and more lay in the mindset of a pack animal.  Far more is learned by following and doing then leading and telling. “Alpha Through Omega” demonstrates this finally through understanding that learning to serve each pack member individually gives way to knowledge each alpha requires to lead effectively and parallel to others.