I was born in 1971 as a Navy brat. My father was serving on the USS Intrepid when I entered the world and, since he was at sea during my birth, he didn't get the chance to meet me until I was several months old and he finished his tour of duty.
Until I was eighteen, I lived in the Northwest Indiana town of Munster. I graduated from Munster High School in 1989 and, in August of that year, I started college at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. That August I began a long and storied connection with the University and with Bloomington. I suppose that my wife, Anna, and I are just the type of people that really love vibrant college towns like Bloomington.
When I started IU, I wanted to pursue a career in politics and, thus, majored in Political Science (with a very brief flirtation in Business). Funny enough, it took me four years and a trip to President Clinton's Inaguration to realize that politics was just too damn dirty and wasn't a place for anyone with any sense of personal ethics.
1993 turned out to be a watershed year for me. I was confused about life in general and worried that a run-of-the-mill political science degree might only be good enough to find myself flipping burgers for the rest of my life. Lucky for me, I missed the deadline for applying for graduation (I used to like to do things at the last minute) and was still a required course short of finishing my B.A. With a "jobless recovery" from the recesssion of the early 1990s vexing my classmates and still some credits to fulfill, I decided to stay at IU for a fifth year.
For most of my undergraduate years, I worked as a Resident Assistant with the Department of Residence Life (now Residential Programs and Services) in a residence hall called Ashton Center. When I returned for the final year to finish my political science degree, I moved to a co-ed building called Mottier. I had no idea how that academic year would change my life! When I moved to Mottier, I struck a close friendship with a resident named Anna (she, too, worked for the Department of Residence Life). In Fall semester, we became very close friends and spent much time together. She even tried to give me advice on dating. Lucky for me, I never took the advice! Anna and I began to recognize that the relationship we had formed was not just a friendship, but had evolved to something much more. In the Spring term, Anna and I began to date one another. Crazy as I was, I told her six weeks into our relationship that I was going to marry her!
The 1993-94 academic year changed my life! I found the woman I loved and I recognized that what I really wanted to be when I grew up was to become an educator. I decided to re-enroll after earning my bachelor degree in May of 1994. In August of 1994, I was a student again, this time pursuing a degree in education. Anna, also pursuing a degree in education, still had two years to finish. We spent the 1994-95 academic year in Mottier.
As my relationship with Anna grew, I realized that she really was the person with whom I wished to spend the rest of my life. Wanting to express my commitment, I bought Anna a ring in October of 1994, but waited two agonizing months to give it her! On December 31st, after Anna and I went to see a New Year's Eve performance of the musical Les Misérables at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. Oddly enough, Anna kept wondering why I was fiddling with an object in my coat pocket throughout the show. After the curtain fell, I invited Anna to join me in a carriage ride starting near the famous Watertower. Although it was very cold, Anna I sat in the back of enclosed carriage under a blanket and enjoyed a peaceful, relaxing journey through Chicago's posh shopping district. At the end of the ride, I told Anna to stay in the cab as I grabbed another blanket from the coachman and knelt down on the carriage's step to ask for her hand in marriage.
Before meeting Anna, I always told my friends "marriage is a three ring circus -- the engagement ring, the wedding ring and the suffering." I threatened to "never marry before 30." Wow! What finding the right person can do for you! Here I was at 23, kneeling in the cold Chicago winter air asking to spend the rest of my life with another person. I never looked back -- it was the right decision then, it is the right decision now and I really do believe that I am truly a better person because of my wife.
Anna and I both had a few semesters to finish on our degrees, so we decided to hold off our marriage ceremony until after graduation. In the Spring of 1996, we both finished student teaching in Northwest Indiana. I taught at Highland High School and Anna student taught at Frank H. Hammond Elementary and Munster High School.
We both graduated from IU that May. Anna found work with Forest Academy in Chicago. I accepted an offer to work as a Corporate Trainer with Productivity Point International (now Micor Solutions). Thus began our year-long "adventure" in the Windy City ...
In July, we moved to Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. Lakeview is situated along Lake Michigan, in south of Wrigleyville and just north of Lincoln Park. Like many other twenty-somethings, we spent the next year in a matchbox-sized apartment amid the hustle & bustle of the big city. If you are single and wealthy, the high life of the city can be an amazing adventure. However, as newly- married couple with entry-level jobs, Anna and I found living in one of America's busiest cities far too grinding and stressful.
On September 28, 1996, Anna and I married. We held our wedding Mass at St. Charles Borremeo Roman Catholic Church in Peru, Indiana (Anna's hometown). After a few days of R & R, Anna and I returned to our jobs, both of us beginning to sense that the crazy life in Chicago might not be the best place for a young couple just starting their life together. While Anna's job was getting the best of her, the commuting and traffic was starting to wear on my nerves. Paying ridiculous prices for everything from the "priviledge" of parking your car close to home to putting food on the table, we both decided that we needed to find better offerings.
Many of our friends from college had settled in Indianapolis. After a few weekend visits to my best friend Darren's place, we also decided to re-locate to Indianapolis. More than anything, we made our decision to move so that we could again be near our friends. We looked for work in the Spring of 1997 and moved to Indianapolis in June of that year.
I took a job as an analyst with Made2Manage Systems, Inc. Anna decided she no longer desired to teach. Instead, she found a job as an Executive Assistant with Noah's Animal Hospitals. In January of 1998, I also began to teach part-time with the Department of Computer & Information Science at IUPUI. Little did I know that my part-time job would lead to a clearer career path for me ...
As I began to teach part-time, I found that I really did miss the university environment. My career goals, cloudy while I worked in the corporate world, became clearer the more I taught -- I wanted to work at a university. My fortunes changed again in Fall of 1999, when the Deparment of Computer Science was searching for a new full-time Lecturer. I interviewed for the position and the Department hired me as a full-time faculty member in Spring 2000. That year would bring another big change and another move ...
Anna, too, was becoming restless in her career and considering her options. She decided that she had an interest in studying the law. After doing well on the LSAT, Anna started as a student at the Indiana University-Bloomington School of Law. For the second time in less than 4 years, we moved. This time, we found ourselves back in Bloomington, a city we love. While Anna worked on her JD,I commuted to Indianapolis to continue teaching. I would continue my trips for another seven years.
After Anna graduated in May 2003, we had a house built in Ellettsville, Indiana. Ellettsville is located just west of Bloomington. We moved into our home on August 11, 2003. For the time-being, I still teach at IUPUI.
Anna decided not to pursue a legal career. Instead, she works as an academic advisor for the Department of Biology at Indiana University - Bloomington. She really does incredible work as an advisor. Among her many advising tasks, she also teaches a class for direct-admit students and she started and maintains the IU Undergraduate BioBlog. In the few years that she has worked as an Academic Advisor, she has won numerous awards. Most recently, Anna won the Indiana Academic Advisor of the Year award in May of 2007! Needless-to-say, I'm very proud of her!
I am getting prepared to make another move in my life. In August 2007, I will leave IUPUI to return to Graduate School. I've decided to return to pursue a Master's Degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs at IU-Bloomington. And the adventure continues ...