- Big… But not the Biggest Brother
I have always been close with my family. In my family I have three brothers, two younger and one older. We all have the same dad but the oldest and youngest brother have a different mom. We also have a pretty significant age difference between us. My older brother is ten years older than me and my two younger brothers are four and ten years younger than me. This picture is of me and my two younger brothers and is among my favorite pictures ever. Growing up my older brother was living in Connecticut with his mom so I did not often get to see him. Now I still see him only occasionally but he has two kids so I guess I can cut him some slack. So the vast majority of the time I was the big brother. I loved being the big brother and while I did play some tricks on my younger brothers I do not think they could have had a nicer big brother. Looking back at all the times I have had with my brothers I think I can attribute my passion for working with kids to them. I enjoyed being there for them to help them at any point they needed some guidance or just somebody to have fun with. They have kept me young at heart and have challenged me to be the best person, big brother and role model I can be. This title also has a double meaning because for a few years now my nineteen year old brother has been taller than me and beats me in a multitude of sports; which drives me crazy at times. He is off at his second year at college in Massachusetts and I miss him.
2. The list by my front door.
I am not going to say that I have a great sense of humor because I feel like self-proclaimed humor is odd. As my girlfriend always says sarcastically “you think you are so funny, don’t you?” My sense of humor is another thing I think is important about myself. If I had to use one word to describe my sense of humor it would be quirky. Right by my front door I have a list of movie quotes from some of my favorite movies. The idea was before leaving the house for the day, my brother mother and I would look at the list and pick three we would try to quote that day. My favorite part was that we would quote the movie and try to do the voice no matter the situation. So for instance my personal best was when I quoted “Monty Python” to my dad who did not know the quote but my brother did. He was asking us to do some task and I replied as the lonely prince did “But Father” in his high pitched voice. Me and my brother were rolling on the ground laughing, while my dad was incredibly confused. Often there was only a friend or two who would get the joke which made it that much better and more enjoyable for me. On that list of movies are mostly comedies such as “Spaceballs”, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” among some of the skits, “Dodgeball”, “Kung Pow”, and many more. The list itself was a full three pages of quotes separated by movies.
3. I like to play sports but I hate to run.
I feel like this runs true with most people. Did you like the pun? To quote my girlfriend “you think you are so funny, don’t you.” There is a whole bunch of sports that I played and still play growing up. I was a two sport varsity athlete in basketball and baseball and made the men’s basketball team here at SUNY New Paltz. Unfortunately it was too much to try and balance in my life so I had to quit. I still go and play a few times a week if I get a chance and even played this summer with a bunch of dads in a men’s league this summer. I also referee basketball games across the Hudson Valley for both girls and boys in recreational leagues and school affiliated Middle and High School games. I really enjoy being on that side of the sport, although it can get pretty crazy with some of the things that happen or that are said to me. I tend to just laugh them off and continue to do my job and focus on enjoying it, but it can really get to you after a while.
- My lifelong passion of animals
From a very young age I have always loved animals and nature. My first real love was dinosaurs and at the age of three or four I would run around the Museum of Natural History naming all of the dinosaurs. Not just the simple ones either like Stegosaurus or T-Rex, but Archeoptyrx and Parasaurolophus. The love of dinosaurs faded some and my love for modern day life blossomed. My favorite animals have always been the big cats especially the Jaguar and my personal favorite animal the Snow Leopard. As you all have seen I keep up with National Geographic and Pathera articles as best I can. I also did my fifth grade science fair project on the Florida Panther. Instead of a volcano I decided to do a study of the population of the Panther and my own study on the endangered species mortality, and birth weight along with carrying capacity. It has been too long since I have been to the Bronx Zoo, and although it seems weird I can spend an entire day just watching a few animals. Since writing this I am actually taking a day to go to the Bronx zoo on Thursday; so pictures to come on Thursday of my experience. I cannot wait to see what has changed and what is the same as I remembered.
5. Climbing the Mountain of Graduation.
I injured it the night of November 7th 2015. While playing basketball I suffered a severe sprained ankle when a guy who was easily 6’5” 250 lbs jumped and lost his balance crashing with all his weight into my stationed right leg. So not only was the end of my undergraduate degree a weird time for me in discovering who I was and what I wanted to be but it was also the most frustrating physical time of my life. I realize I am lucky that there was not more damage done but the road to recovery was the toughest thing I had experienced. Add the fact that mentally I was little overwhelmed and lost made for a tough six months. For the first month, I was just trying to push myself to walk without that stupid boot. By Christmas I was walking without a limp but my ankle was still weak. For the next four months I would do physical therapy two to three times a week plus my own exercises. Although I did do a lot of other things before then, on April 14th 2016 I ran jumped, and landed on my ankle for the first time. Now almost two years after the injury I still feel my ankle if I do a lot of physical activity. It will potentially be swollen for a few more years and I may just feel it tense up after a workout. I am proud to get back to where I am physically but I still want to keep pushing myself to make it even stronger than it was before the injury.
- Science Nerd and Proud of it.
Whereas I was once a very quiet reserved student I have grown to become more confident in myself. One of the things I was very unsure about was my love of animals and my love of science. Many of my peers in sports were not as conscientious or shared many of the same likes as me so I felt insecure about my likes and dislikes. It was not until I got into college and really challenged myself to be myself all the time did I embrace my science nerd side. At the peak of my undergraduate college career I went to an Ecological Society of America conference in Baltimore with four other Biology students. I presented a poster at the conference about the work I did the past two summers. While I was there I wanted to get something to remember the trip for. So I got a pair of socks that have in big letters “ESA”. I only wear them every once and a while only because I do not want to ruin them.