Where’s Walbridge?

As you are driving through the countryside, someone familiar catches your eye. It’s your old science teacher, Mr. Walbridge.

Garth Walbridge became a farm hand in Trumbull, just north of Hastings. After quitting from Hastings Senior High School last school year. 

Walbridge’s decision to pursue farming was not impulsive. The thing that inspired him was his childhood growing up on a farm.

“There was always that little bit of itch to go back, and I had the opportunity to do so without picking up my family and moving to a new location,” Walbridge said. 

Walbridge is no longer doing the teaching but rather the learning as he is grasping new skills and knowledge about his career. 

“I currently enjoy being outside the majority of the time. I’m also learning quite a few new things as I progress through my new career of farming. So, that has been a fun [and] new challenge in my life,” Walbridge said.

When Walbridge was a teacher, he had a set schedule and was able to spend more time with his family. Currently, as Walbridge is adjusting to a new routine and his wife is occupied with a new job, he still experiences difficulties balancing family life and work.

“It’s great to be able to go home during the day, have lunch, and see the family, but there are occasions where I don’t get home till after supper or even after the kids go to bed,” Walbridge said. “In the long run, I feel like I will have more time with my family, considering they are not in school yet, but on a day-by-day basis [it] sometimes seems like I don’t see them as much as I used to.”

Although Walbridge now enjoys getting to spend time and eating lunch with his family on the days he can, he misses his old students and colleagues. 

“I always told my students that teaching really wasn’t a bad gig. I teach 50% of the time and make fun of them 50% of the time,” Walbridge said. “I also greatly miss the people that I work with, especially in my department. Some of them were with me for my entire career and helped mold me into the teacher I have become, and I will forever be grateful for that.”

Even so, he has no plans of coming back to teaching. He wants to focus his time on his farming career, alongside making up time with his family.

“Right now, all I am is a farm hand, a hired man. But, my hope within the next five years after learning and gaining stability is to find some ground to rent on my own so I can start farming my own stuff,” Walbridge said.