As college application deadlines approach, Centennial seniors anxiously await results that will have great bearing on the trajectory of their lives. Many envision a straight path forward, but English teacher Ms. Lori Estes shows her students that isn’t always the case.
Before she became a teacher, Estes’ mind was set on archaeology. “My dream was to sit in the basement of the Egyptian National Museum and decipher hieroglyphics … I was going to be the female Indiana Jones,” Estes recalled.
Pursuing archaeology would require years of extra schooling and expenses, and growing up as the youngest of four in a family without much money, Estes’ parents were initially unsupportive of her going to college at all. Estes’ sister, however, recognized her intelligence and insisted that she go. It was only with the backing of her sister that she eventually enrolled in Union College in Schenectady, New York.
Estes’ college experience had a rough start. Her struggles led her to drop out in her first year. Reflecting on her experience, Estes said, “I was very unhappy. I felt like I didn’t fit in, I felt like I wasn’t good enough. All the students were from these prestigious prep schools … I just felt like I didn’t have the background that the other students had.”
Eventually, Estes decided to re-enroll. Determined to catch up, she worked extra hard, but the doubt in her mind persisted.
In the midst of her struggles in college, she met a professor whose words impact her to this day: Professor Gado. “He put a comment on my paper, and he said, ‘You are the most gifted freshman writer that I’ve ever come across in my career.’ And that that one thing on my paper just gave me the confidence to make me feel like I belonged, I was good enough, I had potential.”
Through her literature classes she discovered where her passion was, leading her to switch majors.
In her junior year at Union College, she received an opportunity to study abroad in Greece, one that she was very eager to take. Estes credits this experience with broadening her horizons. “I had led a very sheltered life from this suburb of New York State, and it showed me the world.”
While studying abroad, Estes used her free time to travel to the neighboring country of Turkey, as well as Egypt. “Egypt’s probably one of my favorite places. Just fascinating history. I love ancient things.”
Upon graduating, Estes returned to Greece for a summer. Her intention was to return to the United States and attend law school afterwards. “I was reading a lot of books that Professor Gado had recommended, things I never had the opportunity to read in college,” Estes said, reflecting on her summer in Greece.
After returning to the U.S. and starting law school, Estes quickly realized that being a lawyer wasn’t what she wanted.
“I was enrolled, I think, for about three weeks in law school, and I realized that just wasn’t where my passion was, and I was taking out a lot of student loans to go there, and I didn’t want to get myself in more over my head than I already was … So I decided that I was going to stop there and pursue other things.”
Once her brief stint in law school was over, Estes knew she wanted to return to Greece. After returning to her home town and working diligently to save money, she bought a ticket back to Greece.
Estes settled in Mykonos, a small island in the Aegean Sea. She worked there as an English teacher while also holding seasonal jobs in the tourist industry.
“So after [the students] went to their Greek school, they would come to the school where I worked, and I worked from October until May, but I also worked in the tourist industry, from May until October, so I had different types of jobs.”
While she was teaching English in Mykonos, a local business owner offered her a part-time job at his store. Estes didn’t know at the time, but a single customer encounter would secure her job for good.
“I walked in … [my boss] showed me some things. He went out to get a cup of coffee. And when he left this very tall man came in, and started talking, he was a Greek man. He’s like, ‘Do you have any whiskey?’ And I’m like, ‘I can find you some whiskey.’ And we sat and had this conversation … I had no idea who he was, but we had this really great conversation, and as he was leaving, the guy who owned the store was coming back in and his face went white when he realized who the man was.” The man told Estes’ boss: “This girl’s a keeper, she’s really good, you should keep her in the store.” That man happened to be Konstantinos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece at the time. After his talk with the Prime Minister, Estes’ boss told her she could work at the store as long as she wanted.
Estes had landed a job with Ilias Lalaounis, a high-end jeweler. “The cheapest thing you could buy was $50,000. And we worked with a lot of people who would come in on private yachts, and they would stop in for dinner and I had to wear cocktail dresses and high heel shoes, and we drank champagne. I would go on yachts and sell jewelry. It was a really fascinating time. I met incredible people, like kings, queens, politicians, actors, actresses. Every day, I was meeting somebody famous who would come in. It was amazing. It was the best job I ever had.”
During her time selling jewelry to the ultra-wealthy, Estes met big names such as Matt Damon, Lady Gaga, and President George H.W. Bush.
After 20 years of working for Lalaounis, Estes decided to return to the United States in 2013. She had recently gone through a divorce, and with two children to care for, she realized living on Mykonos would not provide stability in the long run.
“I came back with my kids because the educational opportunities on a very small Greek island were not very good. So I brought them back here and I had to start life all over again with zero money, two kids, and I did it.”
Starting over at the age of 44 proved to be a challenge. At this point, Estes knew she wanted to teach English, so she got to work on her master’s degree.
“New job, new country, new house, new everything. That was hard to do. It’s hard to do at any age, but especially when you’re that age and you have two very young kids to take care of.” Through all of this, Estes persevered and began working as an ESL teacher at Howard Community College, and later as an English teacher here at Centennial.
Stepping into the role of an educator, Estes reflects on the effect that Professor Gado had on her life. “I try to do that with my own students as well … To point out the positive, to find the little bit of genius that exists in each student and recognize it, and I think, giving kids that confidence, then gives them the ability to take more chances with their writing and go outside the traditional boxes of expectations.”
Every year, Estes sends a letter to her students, recounting the winding story of her life.
“I send a letter every year just to tell students that there really is no one straight path to where you’re going to end up in life. That’s a fallacy to say, if I do A, I’m going to definitely get to point B, and it’s going to be one straight road, because life never works out that way. That’s okay, you’ll get to where you want to be, but there’s a lot of different routes to get there, and maybe even on your way to point B, you realize,’I really don’t want to be at point B.’ I thought I definitely wanted to be a lawyer, and I realized I didn’t, and that’s okay, and then you just kind of have to pivot.”
Estes emphasizes that she faced resistance while trying to follow her own passions, and high school students may feel pressured to follow a path that may not be right for them. “Were my parents happy with any of my decisions in life? No, none of them, going to Greece, quitting law school. They were terribly upset with me. But at the end of the day, you have to follow what your own path is and what your own passion is. And I think a lot of kids, 17 and 18, they’re very scared to hear that.” Her story helps students realize that they have agency over their lives, and though the experience of entering adulthood can be anxiety inducing, it can also be liberating.
“I had a lot of failures in life, a lot of successes. It’s okay if you fail along the way. That’s normal. Kids at Centennial think you get a B and your life is over, and that’s not the case at all. You’re going to encounter failure. A lot of them in life, and it’s how you pick yourself up. That is a true testament to what your character is.”
