Stay Tuned to This Space for Reunion Details!
How to Post Your Reunion Announcement
VIEW ALL REUNIONS

Class News

VIEW ALL CLASS NEWS

Today's Featured Biography

 
Jody Erro Van Driel

Life has been an adventure for me since high school. There have been both highs and lows on the road of life for me, mostly highs, but in a word, a whole lot of “fun”. I married into the military in November 1991, the Air Force to be exact, when I married my high school sweetheart Pete Van Driel, class of ’88. I joined him in Germany where he already was. Our daughter, Krystyna, joined us in May 1993. Our family is rounded out by two, shorthaired, red, miniature Dachshunds.

We’ve lived in Germany for just shy of ten years between two tours, Washington State for five and a half years and now Colorado Springs, CO for the last year and a half. We’ll be in Colorado Springs until the next assignment or until retirement, which is in as little as two years from now. After that we’ll just have to see what happens although this place seems to be growing on us. We haven’t been anywhere long enough to know where we want to settle down. We only know where we don’t want to go back to.

We’ve been fortunate to have had many opportunities to travel in Europe. Some of our highlights have been Germany, Paris, London, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Trier (the Gateway to the Roman Empire). In our travels we were able to visit Disneyland Paris, Neuschwanstein Castle (the castle Walt Disney used as a model for Sleeping Beauty’s Castle), the grave site of General George S. Patton at the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg and a tour of the film locations for the Harry Potter movies in London. To put it in perspective, the border of France was 45 minutes from where we lived and Paris was less than a five hours drive on the autobahn in one direction while Neuschwanstein Castle was a four hours drive in the other direction between the autobahn and country roads. Gotta love that autobahn! I developed a definite lead foot while over there and miss that part of Germany among other things. Hmm, maybe that’s why I like NASCAR so much. Going fast is a lot of fun.

I never thought I’d enjoy history as much as I do. Our classes in high school never gave me any indication I would. However I have come to appreciate it through my experiences. For example, the farm house we lived in during our first tour in Germany was built from the bricks from the walls of the Gateway to the Roman Empire once it fell in Trier. It was quite exciting to see history come alive for our daughter. It's a little sad for that chapter of our lives to be over with.

I am currently a Certified Pharmacy Technician but I’ve held a variety of jobs ranging from working for Hallmark as an Independent Consultant to the U.S. Census Bureau to a bookkeeper to a stay-at-home mom to being self-employed running my own cake decorating business. Moving from place-to-place isn’t ideal for keeping jobs or moving up the ladder but it has been fulfilling, rewarding and interesting. In my spare time I also volunteer. I have been a Girl Scout Leader for the last nine years and I spend time helping out in the military community as time allows.

VIEW ALL BIOGRAPHIES

U.S. Armed Forces

Class Poll

Featured Links

Visit Other Classes