As some may have noticed, I have not blogged in quite a bit. The biggest reason for this is because I simply had nothing much to say that was not politically charged or motivated in some way. I had promised a blog free of politics, and I am a man of my word even if that means I need to keep my mouth shut for a while. But I want to get back to blogging, so I need a politics free blog and need one fast. Therefore, I am going to tell all of you about me.
This is probably something that I should have done in the beginning, but hey, better late than never. Most of the people who read my blog already know pretty much everything there is to know about me. Some, however, probably do not. I think most will likely learn at least a little bit more than they wanted to know in the first place. Wherever you fall, I have readers that are new friends and readers that are old friends (some older than others). So, it is time to catch the old friends up and reveal some of my past to my new friends.
I guess the best place to begin would be the beginning. I was born in 1981 and raised in Pekin, IL. Not sure if this fact defined me at all, but I think that most experts would agree that your geographical location does define you at least to some extent. The city is not large, but it is also not small. We were not plagued by a high crime rate, but had just about everything we needed within a short drive, walk, or bike ride.
The size of the city along with the time period meant that I was one of the kids raised with a curfew of "when the street lights come on." I did not have a cell phone to check in every 15 minutes and we were largely expected to entertain ourselves when not at school or extra-curricular activities. It pains me to know that children today will never experience the freedom, joy, and responsibility of those times.
It may come as a surprise to all of you, but I was not a skinny kid. Since boys were in athletics, my parents sought a sport that they felt would cater to my rotundness in a way where I could excel without the advantage of a smaller frame. This led my parents to enrolling me in my first year of wrestling at the age of 7. This is a sport that I do feel defined me more than most things did. I did love this sport.
I played a variety of other sports as a kid as well. I played basketball, baseball, football, and I even did track in junior high. I was not great at many of these, but I did start in football. I also played soccer for a bit after breaking my leg and was forced to skip football for a season. I never attacked any of these sports as much as I did wrestling. You played other sports, you lived wrestling. It encompassed your diet, your entire exercise routine, and even the way you built muscle mass.
I stunk at wrestling in the beginning, but improved as time went by. In 8th grade, I went to the state tournament and placed 3rd. My freshman year, I made team Illinois and never had a losing record through high school. I wrestled three different styles and attended tournaments in several different states, placing in many of them. I truly wish I would have stuck with success.
My Senior year of high school was the next defining moment of my life. I fell apart. I had terrible priorities and felt that I was definitely old enough to tackle life without another year of school. The problem with this mentality is that I skipped a ton of school and found myself academically disqualified from wrestling my Senior year. This turn of events defined the rest of my life.
Without anything to keep me straight, I did a whole lot more bad things than I already had been. I will not go into detail, but lets just say that my poor kids will have a hard time getting away with much. If their mom didn't do it in high school, I did. We made a lot of mistakes. For those of you who don't know, she was pregnant before we graduated and this set us on a very different path than either of us had planned.
After high school, we struggled as young newlyweds and new parents. We envied our friends of the life of fun they were having and fought against each other when we should have been leaning on each other. The best thing that could have happened to me was when her dad insisted that I join the military so that I could actually make something of my life. With that, I joined the Navy.
I will keep my Navy life brief. While we learned a lot and got our lives on track, there were times when we almost lost it all. We did things that neither of us are proud of and did not lead lives that were aligned with our morality and faith today. Let's stick with the basics here. I studied nuclear reactor theory and electronics in Goose Creek, SC, I operated a nuclear power plant and learned hands on electrical work in Ballston Spa, NY, and served aboard the USS Nevada in Bangor WA. For those who do not know, the Nevada is a ballistic missile submarine and I was assigned as one of the crew that operated the steam plant side of the nuclear power plant on-board. My time in the Navy ended shortly after my second child, my first daughter, was born.
After the Navy, I worked for a short time at Illinois Machine and Tool before landing a Machine Operator gig at Caterpillar. Caterpillar provided a livelihood for my family and I and allowed me to go back to school along with my GI Bill. Also, a surprise child, our second daughter, was brought into this world while the company's insurance still paid for some things. I studied business with an emphasis in HR Management and got an HR job shortly after graduating. A management gig led straight to lay off five months later as the economy crashed.
The crashed economy led to a fourteen month stint of unemployment where my wife and I were tested pretty harshly. I had become a Christian at the age of 25, and this definitely helped me through this time. For the first time I did not struggle to try to make it work on my own. I was able to give it to God and trust that He would see us through. Also, our shared faith allowed my wife and I to lean on each other instead of blame each other.
After 14 months, God led me to a job interview to work in Business Services at a Workforce Development Center. The interview went well and the Division Manager and I spent a lot of time simply talking. I mentioned some of the mission trips that I went on with the church and that I work with our Youth. This led to being offered a completely different job that I now occupy. I have never had a more rewarding job. I feel that I make a positive difference to the people that I work with and to our community.
This leads me to today. I know I skipped things, but I did not want to make it a play by play. The bottom line is that I am now a Christian man that is married to a Christian woman and we have three wonderful children. We love football and are die hard Bears fans and have begun to find a love for hockey as well. I love spreading the Gospel and telling people about Christ. I am slightly haunted by the knowledge that my childhood best friend ended his own life without knowing Christ and this has instilled a willingness to share Christ with everyone. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life and will likely make many more. Hopefully I learn from all of them and will be able to make fewer as Christ shapes my life as He needs.
Thank you again for reading a rather long, particularly dry blog. Please, click on my ads. It makes me happy. Hopefully my next blog has a bit more humor than this one did. :) God Bless!!
You are quite a man!
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