| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | My most memorable childhood experience is being outside in my backyard, on a warm summer day with the sun shining down, and watching the birds fly to and from the bird feeder. Watching the colorful creatures flying around captured my interest as a young boy, and it made me want to learn more about them. The memory of first seeing a House Finch at the bird feeder really sticks out. I remember its bright red body, and I really wanted to find it in my bird book and learn about this new bird. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | I identify well with my brother. We are both intelligent, but we can both be forgetful. We are both dedicated to our passions in life, for me it is birds and ornithology, and for my brother it is playing his trumpet. We both went to school for our studies and have spent a lot of time on them. We are both good listeners, and we help listen to each other, and think about what the other one is going through. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I admire an individual who is able to relate well to others. Someone who is able to go into a new situation, and engage people that they are working with in a positive way. People who are working towards a goal, and helping others along the way as they pursue it. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | The funniest thing to ever happen to me is when a friend of mine was outside of the lunch room at high school, waiting for the bell to ring. As a joke, he decided to start "snorting" for no real reason, making a sound like a pig. Some girls standing near him started pointing at him, and started laughing at him. Then a big kid came up and started yelling at the girls. He said, "It's not his fault he can't breathe!" My friend kept a straight face and kept making the sound. "Yeah, breathe if you have to!" said the kid. I was on the floor laughing! |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I would travel all over the world to visit natural areas and to learn about new kinds of birds. I would love to travel to South America and southeast Asia to see the rainforest there. For a vacation, I would like to travel to the Maldives, where you can get a hotel that is propped up above a shallow sea, and go swimming under your floor! And I would like to dip in the hot springs in Iceland. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | I would like to pass on to them a sense of kindness and responsibility. I would also like to pass on to them an appreciation for the natural world, and the other species that we share the planet with. I would like for them to find something in their lives to be passionate about, and follow a dream towards achieving their career goals. |
