Being part of a company that is all about bringing people with things in common together, I remain on my quest to find someone who has been to 4 high schools in one year like I did in 1988.

When I was 12, my mom married a man named Mike Dimond and we lived in Nashville, TN. He was a pioneer in the hotel industry and built a reputation for re- energizing hotels and resorts with new ideas and excellent guest service. After we completed 8th grade, Mike accepted a job in Tampa, FL at Saddlebrook Resort and we were happy to move to try a new place. Little did I know that when that Uhaul truck pulled up in the summer of 1985 to move us to Florida, that it I would see Uhaul many more times over the next few years.

At the end of my freshmen year, Mike accepted a job at the Boca Raton Hotel so we moved to Boca Raton, FL, though this time not as willing participants. We thought the world was over but after a few months managed to settle in, make new friends and get excited. Well for those of you who saw the movie Groundhog Day, my life was the prequel.

As sophomore year ended, my mom and Mike began taking trips to Las Vegas and I was worried about them developing a bad gambling habit and even more concerned that there might be a job offer on the horizon. I remember thinking to myself that there was no way we could move 3 years in a row and, until I saw some Fedex packages arriving at our house from Caesars Palace, was not alarmed.

We left for Las Vegas in early August and they had to drag my brother and I to the airport. Imagine having to start over every year of high school. We enrolled in Bishop Gorman High School as juniors (Andre Agassi was a student there at the time). We lived in a penthouse suite in Caesars Palace and walked through the casino every morning with our books, wearing our school uniforms and tried not to distract the gamblers, drinkers and smokers. Nothing like arriving at school already smelling like smoke. It would always be a few months of eating room service every night while living in the hotel before finding a house (which did get old believe it or not).

After a few weeks, I called my dad who was living in Nashville (and had his entire life) and asked if I could move back home with him to finish high school there. At least I could reconnect with my grade school friends. He invited me to come back, so I drove my Jeep Commanche pickup truck 36 hours straight, by myself, from Las Vegas to Nashville on Interstate 40. My twin brother, Asher, stayed behind betting that Vegas would be the last stop.

When I arrived in Nashville my dad asked me to go to Hilsboro Public School (I had never been to public school in my life) as he wasn’t crazy about paying tuition for the private school where my friends went. I agreed to try it and after 9 days, I convinced him to let me join my friends at Father Ryan High School. Finally, the world was right and I had managed to recover from all the change. What could go wrong now?

It was January 1988 and my dad sat me down to tell me he was being transferred to San Francisco. I don’t remember how I responded but I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant. I had no one to stay with in Nashville, and I didn’t want to move back to Las Vegas, so one of my friends and his family in Boca Raton offered to let me move-in and live with them to finish high school. How I talked my parents into that, I will never know.

In February of 1988, I re-enrolled at Pope John Paul II High School in Boca Raton, (my 4th high school for that year). Wait, it gets better.

That summer, Mike got a job offer he could not refuse at the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort in Colorado Springs. My brother and I talked he and my mom into getting a condo in Boca Raton so that my brother and I could both finish senior year at the same place. My mom spent 2 weeks a month in Colorado and 2 weeks a month in Boca Raton so my brother and I made the best use of our freedom. I often liken that experience to the difference between the first cruise we ever did which was a group of 400 people on a ship with 1200 other normal cruisers and the ones we do now where we charter a ship. To me its the difference between having a party where your parents are in town vs. a party where your parents are not even in the same state. Believe it or not, we both managed to graduate without getting arrested.

I share this story with you today because Mike recently suffered a heart attack and is in a deep coma. Although my mom and Mike divorced in 1990, he and I remain close and even reconnected 6 years ago to create Weekend of Jazz with Earl Klugh at the Broadmoor Resort. As I began working with him in 2002, it became crystal clear that the years watching him innovate and deliver world class service have impacted me greatly. He never graduated from college yet he achieved so much in his industry and earned the respect of all his peers before he retired last year.

Next year, I have 5 Twenty Year Reunions to attend if I can make the schedule work. I remember high school fondly despite all the changes. At the time, it was the most painful thing I could have imagined. Now I can see it as part of my journey that has led me here today and I would not trade it for anything. It has prepared me to face adversity and charge head on with a calm optimism. I have Mike Dimond to thank for that.

-Andy