My Early Life
     I was born on April 5, 1979 at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I grew up just outside Belmont, MI and have lived in the same house my whole life.  I have a sister one year younger than me, who is Psychology major at Grand Valley State University and a brother 7 years younger than me who is a Junior at Rockford High School this year.
     I attended elementary school at Crestwood Elementary.  It was here that I was first put into an accelerated mathematics program by my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Warren.
     Sixth grade was spent at River Valley, the oldest school building in the district (and boy, did it show).  The administration has since taken over this building.  Guess that means no more kids sliding halfway down the hallways on hot days. hehe
     Middle school (7th and 8th grades) was spent in what is now known as the Rockford Freshman Center. It was during these years that I started to get an idea of what I might want to do with my life.

My High School Years
     High school, the best 4 years spent at Rockford Public Schools, I was lucky enough to be a member of the first class to progress fully through the new (circa 1993) Rockford High School.  I was a bright kid, continuing to excel in math and science.  I didn't have many friends and wasn't very popular, but I didn't care.  I had my friends (you all hopefully know who you are) and that's all that matters, right?
     While in high school, I started reading fantasy books from TSR, Inc. (now a division of Wizards of the Coast), especially from the Dragonlance ® and Forgotten Realms ® settings.  After reading these books for about a year, my friends and I started playing Dungeons & Dragons®, which we still do. (D&D3e Monks RULE!!)  We have gotten to the point where we have started designing our own worlds, now.  And of course, we still read the books, always looking for new ideas to use in our gaming sessons.
     In my Junior year, I finally decided on my college major and what school to go to.

My College Life
     After graduating from RHS in May of 1997, I came down to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in sunny Daytona Beach, Florida, to major in Aerospace Engineering.  Because I had taken Advanced Placement (AP) tests in high school, I was able to start my college career over a semester ahead of most everyone else.  I did ok until October 2001, when I fell ill and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.   This made it hard to finish out that semester, as I was ill as much as I was healthy. January 2002, I actually had to withdraw from classes for a while.  In early April 2002, I flew home to Michigan to attend my aunt's wedding, but ended up in the hospital having emergency surgery to remove my colon the day of the wedding.  Two surgeries later, I'm feeling good and am preparing for what should be the final surgery to put me back together again, which is coming up on Halloween.
     In May of 2000, after coming home for the summer to work at Meijer's, I met Rachel, the woman to whom I have been engaged for 18 months now.
     In late July, 2001, I also started playing EverQuest.  Click here to read about my current EQ characters.

My Future Plans
     My plans for the future, you ask?
     Rachel and I plan to get married in the summer of 2004, but it depends heavily on when I graduate from ERAU.
     After college, I would like to go into the design department at some aerospace engineering firm, designing the airplanes you will fly on in the future.  Who knows now, though, since 9/11 kinda crushed an already lagging industry. ERAU has also finally begun to branch out their AE program to include Propulsion-focused classes, which I enjoy taking.  Maybe I'll end up doing that instead of structural work.
     After a time doing that, I plan to move to the outback of Australia, to satify those adventurous urgings in my life.  Besides, I have always loved Australia and wanted to live there at some point in my life since I was a little kid.
     Once I have had my fill of Australia (if I ever do), I would love to move off-planet, to Mars for example, and help to colonize and create a new transportation system wherever I finally end up.  I think it would be nifty to design all-new vehicles for the very different atmospheric conditions on other planets.  Don't you?