One in a series.
Re: “The Ideal LaRose Home – in Houston?”’
Today Dave LaRose bids farewell to the superintendent’s supremely tidy desk in the School District offices on Irving Place, and his colorful verbal joie de vivre is going to be missed.
He mentioned to a reporter this week that when he was hired from Washington state four summers ago, the reporter’s story mentioned Mr. LaRose’s favorite descriptive phrase, “the whole child,” 18 times.
Sounds about right, doesn’t it?
Mr. LaRose and colorful characterizations go together as snugly as Metro and Goldwyn and Mayer.
Meanwhile, an inner wrestling match is being contested in Mr. LaRose’s ever occupied mind. These are the competing feelings, lifelong restlessness vs. a powerful yearning to settle in one place. Like permanently.
Husband and wife yearn to roam together, wherever air flights or cars may carry them.
No telling which side will prevail.
Before his final School Board meeting two afternoons ago, Mr. LaRose was talking about feeling slightly older now that his 50th birthday is in the rearview mirror.
“When that little red card from AARP came, it certainly started shifting my thinking a bit,” he said before turning to his photographer wife.
“Mindi just finished her (graphic design degree) program through UCLA,” he said.
This was one of the pivotal reasons the LaRoses decided this was the optimal season to explore the next phase of their personal and professional lives together.
Earning a degree “was part of Mindi’s next chapter,” Mr. LaRose said.
“Then we wanted to look at whether we were going to be more in control of our powers, our locations and our destinations.
“I have had opportunities in my previous work to be able to control, train, speak and travel a little bit, associated with that type of work for 26 years.
“You gain a lot of stories. I like to tell stories.
“So we are going to try to harness that for a little bit,” said Mr. LaRose. “It might create some traveling opportunities for us.
“If the consulting world takes off (for me), and Mindi can do her graphic design while traveling with me, that might be our next chapter.”
(To be continued)