Our first inaugural Townies Talk 2018 event was superb and we couldn’t be more excited. Around 40 Watertown High School students filed into the assembly room while alumni caught up about their lives. Alumni told their stories about vastly different paths in life and gave great advice while students listened (we didn't see one single cell phone pulled out). It was so awesome to be offline and in reality. We really appreciate the teachers who encouraged students to attend the event and we think the 90 minutes was valuable time that not only helped students understand specific careers paths, but also life in general. 

Some great advice given:

“I realized how easy it was to apply myself.” 

“Contact your college for expectations ahead of time.”

“I regret not working harder in high school. You may think it’s funny to forget your homework and say a stupid excuse to make the class laugh, but it’s just not.”

“Even if you love something, you still need to fight for it.”

“Take your time, there is no rush to figure out what you want to do.”

I was surprised to hear that many Watertown High School students didn’t know that TOWN existed and it really got me thinking about our strategy. We strive to be a vital resource for teachers, guidance councilors, and the administration. The materials that we produce and the stories that we share, can be easily applied to guidance councilors helping students figure out college decisions or teachers helping a student cope through a tough time. Many alumni are open to connecting with students and answering questions about career choices and student loans. Teachers, please feel free to reach out to TOWN and use us as a resource. Join our e-mail list so that you will receive updates when new TOWN stories are published, ask us questions, print these stories out, let your students know about this important resource. In the mean time, we’ll be working on a strategy too. One thing I’m hoping is to be able to reach the entire school with our stories, now it’s just time to figure out how to do it.

In the evening, we all got together at Fino Wood Fired Pizzeria on Main Street to enjoy some delicious pizza  for our Townies Talk After Hours networking event. Soon, these online story-tellers turned into my friends; we all live very different lives but we all share one important hometown. The conversations were inspirational, intelligent and hilarious. We laughed and plotted our next TOWN move. I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out. 

Thank you to Chelsea Kyle, Nate Habegger, Matt O’Meara, Emily O’Conner, Matt Dwyer and Lauren Vail for traveling to Watertown and taking time out of your busy lives to participate. Thank you to Nicole Lewis and Michelle Baim for helping organize the event. Thank you to the multiple teachers who saw the value and brought their classes to the event. I’m excited for the future of TOWN, and I truly hope that we can figure out a way to reach every student.