I have officially moved my family across the country to Arizona! What I learned through this experience was that I don’t care to ever do it again. The entire process took approximately one week and was excruciating to say the least. It is amazing how much junk one family can accumulate in only eight years at a single residence. Thank God professional movers were enlisted to handle the packing process as I am confident that without them, we would have never left Naples. The unpacking process has been painful at best, although I was able to head back to Naples and leave the residual work in the capable hands of my wife and mother-in-law. Ella, Mia and Nate are adjusting well to their new environment. They are amazed at the mountains and are really taking in the new sights and sounds of the Desert Southwest. The day after we arrived, the Phoenix area had a record rainfall (2.7 inches) so in the eyes of my little ones it was simply status quo!
We have experienced many new forms of wildlife as well. Although I was warned of some of the dangerous insects, I did not expect to find a scorpion in Nate’s bathing suit while preparing for a swim. This wasn’t your average scorpion, but instead a fairly large one and very aggressive. I made sure to show the triplets and explain never to touch one before crushing him, wondering how many more we will find. Following that encounter, I checked my shoes twice before putting them on and shook out every piece of clothing I chose to wear.
I have attached several pictures in my column illustrating our move and some of the scenery in and around the Scottsdale area. I will now have a 20 mile commute (currently only 5 miles) to my new office, however, the scenery is stunning and will certainly make the drive much more enjoyable.
Since announcing that I will be leaving Saint John the Evangelist, I have had plenty of time to reflect on my 17 years of employment. Little did I know at the time, but in 1997 we were still in our infancy. I had the pleasure of growing the parish into a very large family under the tutelage of two amazing pastors, Fr. Glackin and Fr. Ludden. I have so many fond memories that I will never forget and am extremely proud of what we accomplished during my tenure.
Since JP is now overseeing the day to day operations of the parish and will inform you all as to what is going on internally, during my remaining time here, I thought I would share some funny stories from my early years here that you may find interesting.
For those of you who don’t know, I ended up here by accident. As a matter of fact, I initially thought I was interviewing for the position of manager of an athletic facility. Five minutes into my initial interview, I realized that I had no idea what position for which I was interviewing. As it turns out, I was able to work my way through that interview and was called back for a second. It was at this interview that I knew St. John was out of the ordinary. One of the questions asked of me was about my golf handicap. Coming from the golf business in Tallahassee, I was quite the player at the time with a 4 handicap. I thought this was an odd question until Fr. Glackin arrived to the interview late after celebrating a funeral. As he walked past one of the board members, they stopped him and explained that I was a 4 handicap. I thought this very strange until I found out that one of the players in their tournament foursome had recently passed away and they would need a strong replacement. So it seems that if my financial and management skills did not impress them, my abilities on the golf course were good enough to get me the job. And golf we did! Back in the late 90s during the summer months when Naples was a ghost town, Fr. Glackin would stop by my office after daily Mass no less than three days a week and let me know that we would be playing golf that afternoon. Relationships with many of our long time parishioners were developed during these golf outings for which I will be forever grateful.
More to come next week…
Thank you again for your continued support and generosity.
In His work together,
Scott Schlossberg, MBA