About Me

“Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.”
Arthur Rimbaud

My life for many years was off-track but now as I begin my 30th year, I will make myself a better person. As a small child I was placed in the gifted program at my elementary school. I had been blessed with a Mother who taught me to read at the age of three. That early start more than likely helped give me a leg up over my fellow classmates. As the years passed I grew accustomed to being the "smart kid" in class. Little did I know that the moniker "smart kid" when come back to hurt me.

When I turned 12, my step-father was diagnosed with lung cancer and we moved from Seattle to San Diego for the dry air. I began middle school with the same level of "nerdiness" I had throughout elementary school, but this "nerdiness" gained me ridicule from my fellow classmates. They called me "geek" and "schoolboy". At this point I decided to neglect my studies in an effort to be "cool".

My stepfather passed away right before I was to start high school. We moved back to Seattle and I attended an alternative school. I also continued to try and be cool and succeeded somewhat! This small bit of success worsened my school work. And eventually all that mattered at high school revolved around the social.

I got a job at a restaurant at the age of 17. I began to make money! Not just a little bit of money but a lot for a teenager. I also started having success with the opposite sex. School was an afterthought, so it made sense in my young mind to me to drop out and get my GED at 17.

For several years after leaving school, it seemed my life consisted of work and leisure. I would drink and smoke to pass the time between my hours on the job. Hundreds of hours were spent on street corners with beers and my slacker friends. Eventually at the age of 24, a woman named Wendy would help me break this routine and help me remember something about myself that I had forgotten; that I wanted to be a winner. We moved in together and eventually I got a job selling windows. It ended up being quite lucrative, but I had to step away when Wendy got a can't turn down job offer here in Illinois.

We moved to Chicago together 2 years ago. It has been a huge lifestyle change for us. Especially the winters, which have been quite taxing. I took a job selling security services, but I soon realized that I did not want to sell things forever. I wanted to do something "meaningful" with my life. I had wasted too much time doing nothing that truly mattered in what I felt was the big scheme of things.

So that's why I am in school. To get my degree in teaching and do something that matters to me. Maybe I can help a kid that is going through the same issues that I went through, the issues that I allowed to stunt my development. If I can help one kid, it would mean more to me than selling 100 windows.

That's basically a quick rundown of my life. I am an old soul, but young at heart (can one have both?). Interests include: Mixed Martial Arts, Video Games, Sci Fi/ Fantasy Fiction, a good conspiracy theory, History, Movies, and our three dogs.