I was born on October 9, 1984 in Leesburg, Virginia. My mom was 24 at the time, while my dad was 27 (not sure about that one though lol). Both of them attended the University of Virginia, which I now attend. My dad is from Pennsylvania, while my mom is a Virginia native. At first, they lived in Loudoun County, VA with my grandparents, but after a few months they bought their own home in nearby Clarke County. It is in this house that I would spend most of the first 18 years of my life.
My dad is a structural engineer, while my mom is a librarian, so I started out firmly in the middle class. I am thankful that my mom is a librarian, because she immediately started reading to me, and I quickly learned to read myself. I read constantly as a child, starting with simple childrens books, moving to simple horror works such as the goosebumps series and Alvin Scwartz' scary stories, although I soon moved on to Stephen King, Anne Rice, Dean Koontz, and a host of short stories by various authors. I had easy access to book, since my mom worked in a library. In addition, I read tons of gaming magazines and comics. I even read them in church, and my parents didn't stop me. If there is one aspect of my personality that is more essential than the rest (other than being a Christian, of course) it would have to be my love of reading, instilled in me at a very young age.
Meanwhile, I attended Round Hill Baptist Church every sunday, including both the service and sunday school. I was (and still am) very skeptical, and I would often try to find mistakes and fallacies in the pastor's sermons. My family (grandparents and mother) were active in the church, although my father did not start attending church until my adolescence. Thankfully, I took after my mother.
This gave me the opportunity to be very active within the (relatively small: only about 100 members) chruch at a young age, including helping prepare luncheons, watch children in the nursery, and (when I was older) help with setting up major/minor events. I still find great joy in serving God in this manner.
Starting at age 4, I attended preschool. I was an intelligent child, but I was also inquisitive, pugnacious, and competitive, so I got into a fair amount of trouble during this time, and in later years. In fact, I had to change preschools 4 times!
After than, I attended Berryville Primary School, and D.G. Cooley Elementary in Clarke County. I was fortunate in this regard, because despite attending only public schools for my entire life (including college) I had an excellent education, supplemented by help from my mother. She would buy workbooks and such to help me, which gave me a definite advantage by the time I reached elementary school. I still got into trouble, especially with one other kid who was something of a "rival." I will not give his name (that would probably violate some rules somewhere), but we would compete, fight, and argue; however, by 4th grade, he was one of my best friends, and would remain in that position throughout highschool, right up to the present day.
I was immediately placed in the "smart" classes, in something that was known at that time as the PAL (parters in advanced learning...corny, no?) program. I really enjoyed this, since we had a very loose curriculum, studying everything from Shakespeare, to horror (we had some say in the topics as you may have guessed
), and medieval warfare. All of this while the other kids were sitting through the typical drudgery. This was another major factor in determining my current position and personality.
Two important things happened to me in middle school: I had my last fight, and I met my best friend in the history of friends. In 6th grade, the previously mentioned rival and I got into a fight, and were sent to the office. For some reason, this was the last time we fought, and the last time I was ever in serious trouble in school (I was never suspended, probably due to my "gifted" status, which I realize is grossly unfair). Up until this time, I was, quite frankly, a mean, bratty child (my father never passed up an opportunity to remind me of this). Then, while I was "being bad" one day, my uncle stopped me cold, and just said, "No." He was visiting from Alaska at the time, so it was highly unusual for him to be there. God must have been helping me there.
After this, I stopped causing as much trouble out of school.
Read the next post for part two of my bio.
). I don't recall any feelings of resentment created by my parents attention given to the new baby, but it is possible that such feelings existed. Since we live in the same environment, it is not surprising that we have very similar personalities (although she is somewhat more extroverted). This led to a lively sibling rivalry that was expressed through fighting, arguing, and academic competition. In retrospect, I wish I had been nicer to my sister, but I think we still share a special relationship.
Oh well...
