Matthew Craig

20 years Pfffft! that's a drop in the bucket! I'm 37 going on 23. Seriously, I can't believe it has been 20 years. So where have I been and what have I been up to you ask? Well let's journey back, Sherman set the way back machine for graduation day May, 1987 the place Sullivan Field Los Alamos, New Mexico, and we're off!

There it goes, cap into the air, my diploma in hand and what's my first thought? GOD I cannot wait to get out of this STUPID gown, and my next thoughts, what the heck am I going to do now, and how soon can I get out of Los Alamos? Well after graduation night festivities and the several days of after parties. I decided that I had graduated high school and I knew everything. so I got married :::sigh::: yep, I said it, got married quick and moved to Santa Fe with my new wife where I proceeded to try and figure out what I was going to do now, and that continued until 1989 when I got hired on at the Santa Fe County Detention Center (JAIL) as a booking room officer. It was different and fun and you got to meet new and different people daily and then fingerprint them, in all seriousness I discovered I enjoyed Law Enforcement, it was fun and never the same thing twice, monotony was kept to a minimum. It may sound cliché but it gave me the feeling I was making a difference and a sense of accomplishment that other jobs had not. I was thinking all was fine and dandy until early 1991 when I wound up divorced, and let me tell you something. I realized I had been a jerk, but I figured it out too late.

In early 1992 I decided that I need out of Santa Fe, and out of New Mexico, through a fortuitous turn of events the private corrections company I work for in Santa Fe happened to be opening a new "state of the art" 700 bed facility in Nashville TN and wanted people with company experience to go, so I packed up my stuff and asked my new girlfriend if her and her 2 daughters wanted to go, to which she said yes (the first of the most important 2 yeses she would say) and off we went. I helped open that facility and continued to work in corrections at that facility until 2003 holding several different jobs such as Shift Supervisor, Fire and Safety officer, Disciplinary Hearing officer, Transportation Supervisor, Training officer and spent several years on the S.O.R.T. team, (making a quick stop in 1995 to marry my current wife and love of my life Tracy) So in 2003 after 14 years in corrections I decided I had had enough and it was time for a change. I went to work for Comcast cable as a line technician and had a blast doing it. I mean how many jobs teach you to climb a phone pole with gaff spikes and work 30 feet in the air, awesome!! But a knee injury in 2005 caused me to have to leave field work and it just wasn't the same. Now I currently work as a warehouse supervisor for a cell phone repair and distribution company which is just as cool because I get to play with all the new cell phones as they come out. God I like the gadgets.

In my spare time (when I get some) I enjoy harassing my wife and kids, hiking, geo-caching, paintball and airsoft, fencing, biking active stuff ever since I had my back surgery in 2000, along with my current and ever present video game addiction, (Robert, I still have my old Atari 2600)

As much as I couldn't wait to get out, I can't wait to get back and see everyone at the reunion. I can't wait to show my wife the town I grew up in and have her meet the people I grew up with. There is a part of me that feels sadness and guilt for not keeping contact with friends, people I grew up with since Aspen Elementary school, people I was part of the last 9th grade class at Pueblo Jr. High. I did not have the life experience to realize the importance of those connections. I hope to fix that in July. The south has it good points but I haven't seen once dang Pinon tree or had a decent bowl of Hatch green chili stew since then.

Ok you have spent enough time laughing and chuckling at my tale now GO OUTSIDE!

Matthew

615-390-5811

Photo: Me, wife Tracy, daughter Michaela holding her son, my grandson Xavier and daughter Lynnette