| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | When I was younger my family and I would go to the mountains a lot. There was a lake there that my father and I would fish in. We never ate anything we caught, we just had fun fishing. I'd spend hours in the woods just running around by myself making trails in the brush with my BB gun slung over my shoulder. I remember imagining I was some kind of Davy Crockett running around in the great wilderness. I still like to go to the woods when I can, and I still imagine I'm Davy Crockett when I do. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | I'm closest with my mom. Maybe it's because of the family dynamic where boys tend to be closer with their mothers and girls tend to be closer with their fathers? I'm not sure; I just know my mother and I share the same sense of humor and get along well. If you ask my sisters though, they'll tell you it's because I'm her favorite. They might be right. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I try to read "The Old Man and the Sea" at least once a year because I think that book really spells out, what I believe, is the most admirable character trait in an individual. To me, the story is about the quiet strength of willpower. I look up to the Old Man in the story because, despite his poor position, he is able to make up for it with unrelenting determination. I think it's easy sometimes to feel unprepared for what life throws at you. That's why when I start to feel like that, I think of the Old Man and I try to be more like him. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | When my friends and I were about seventeen we decided we were going to go on a big camping trip. I think we had all just read "Into the Wild" and our plan was to make it a survival trip, kind of like that show Man vs. Wild. We wanted to go into the wilderness with just a knife and some rope and try and survive off the land. So we headed out and spent a day hiking into the woods to be certain we'd completely left civilization behind. We eventually found a great spot next to a small river where we were certain we'd be able to catch dozens of fish with spears we'd made out of sharpened sticks. What can I say, we were young and complete idiots. The thing about a survival trip is when you have only one set of clothes and no sleeping bag or tent, getting your clothes wet is just not an option. So if we wanted to fish, we had to do it in our birthday suits. Well, fast forward five days later and none of us had come even remotely close to catching a single fish. We were all freezing cold and starving, so it was decided it was time to give up and go back home. In a moment of desperation I jumped back into the water, determined to catch at least one fish before we went home but instead of catching a fish, I stepped on a rusty fishing hook that was on the bottom of the river. Not just a regular hook though, one of those hooks with 3 barbs and somehow each of them were completely buried into my foot. I hobbled to the edge of the water and tried to get the hook out but no matter how hard I pulled and twisted it just seemed to get stuck further. I couldn't walk and my friends couldn't carry me out so I knew the only option was using my knife to cut my foot open and dig the hook out. I called one of my friends to bring me my knife so he went and got it, took off his clothes and crossed the river to give it to me. We sat there together while I cut at my foot and moaned until the hook finally came out. Relieved the hook was finally out, I laid back and when I did, it must have been the first time me or any of us had really looked at the other side of the river because no more than 50 yards behind me was a house with a large bay window directly facing me and my naked friend. In that very same moment, a family in kayaks came around the bend of the river and were just a few yards in front of us. My first instinct was to run and hide but when you get caught naked like that, it's kind of like tripping and falling on stage, all you can do is stand back up, smile at everyone and take a bow. So we sat there and waved at them as they hurried to pass us. I can't imagine what the family must have thought coming upon two naked men sitting on side of a river or if the people who owned the house were wondering why a group of guys were running around their back yard naked for the past five days. In any event, my friends and I still laugh about that trip and how tough we thought we were being, camping in some guy's back yard. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | That's a bold proposition. I've ridden my bicycle across most of the United States, camping in a tent and that was practically free. I did the same thing in Europe and aside from my plane ticket and the food I ate, that trip was almost free too, so I don't really see money as a huge obstacle for traveling. So, if someone could wave a magic wand and let me go anywhere I wanted with time and money not being issues, I feel like I'd really have to take advantage of that opportunity. I'd want to go somewhere like Mars or another planet in a different galaxy. As for why, Why not? First of all, just the weightlessness of space has to be one of the coolest experiences possible. But then also to be able to walk on another planet and explore something that literally no one in the history of human beings has explored. That's something you can't pass up. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | I think the most valuable thing my father gave me was a sense of independence. When I was growing up, it was really difficult for me to realize what he was doing. At the time, I felt like he was actively trying to avoid helping me, I thought he was just trying to make my life more difficult. Now that I've grown up, I understand that he was teaching me to rely on myself in the face of adversity. If I have children, I want to be able to teach them the same lessons so that they can be strong even when I'm not there. |
