Life Stories

A life story?

Born in '66.  Navy brat.  Moved every few years but not overseas.  Every move was a drive across country.  Few things suck more than being the new kid in a school halfway through the year where everyone already knows each other.
Youngest of three, by the time I was looking to leave the house, it was a good thing.  Parents divorced shortly after I left the house but they weren’t really a married couple those last years anyway.

Joined the Navy since there was no money at home for college.  Volunteered for submarines and nuclear power once my ASVAB and NFQT scores became known.  Two years later in '86, I got to my submarine in Pearl Harbor and headed off to chase godless Commies in the Pacific.  We chased things that go bump in the night and I received my first “combat medal” for unspecified actions.  I also went to Captains Mast for “Dereliction of Duty” but it must not have been too serious since they fined me < $300 and kept me around.  In '88 we went in the shipyard at Peal Harbor to change out major parts of the reactor plant.  By the time we were coming back out the godless Commies had quit and the Navy was facing a 50% cut in manpower needs.  I watched the good leaders start looking for jobs outside and decided I did not want to be left standing in a military full of people too dumb to find real jobs.

Got out in '90 and headed for college but I stayed with the Reserve to keep that door open and help pay for beer.  Also brought along that cute girl I met while I was home on leave 18 months earlier.  She was a US citizen born and raised over seas (beautiful sexy german accent!) and now she was headed to “my” college as a transfer student.  We ended up in the same co-ed dorm building.  Then the same co-ed bed.  Decided to make it official.  18 months later our daughter was born.  I put my college degree in a 1/2 time mode and started working full time to support my family.  My wife took a year off for the pregnancy and newborn then went back to finish her degree.  I found a better job working as a Navy contractor that helped pay for college.  I also learned something about stealth technology and got to spend some time playing with really neat stuff.

Two years later I got a promotion that took us to Washington DC.  Took a year off the degree to avoid the out of state tuiton nightmare.  Got back into 1/2 college and full time work while paying for a mortgage, two cars, a stay at home working wife and our daughter.  Finally got my daughter off to pre-school and my wife off to out of the house work when our second child was conceived.  In '95 he was born and my wife stayed home with him for three more years.  In the mean time, I kept at the degree and worked like a dog.  I was traveling >%50 of the time, turning in homework by fax and watching lectures on video tape.

In '98 I finally finished my BSEE degree, got another major promotion and was liking life.  Unfortunately, the military contracting world started to slow down so I looked around for other options.  The “internet” was starting to take off and Information Technology was geting big so I looked for supporting industries that were not as dependent on military spending.

By 2000 I had a job in the Silicon Vally building satellites for telcoms.  We rode that wave for a few years and watched the tech bubble bust and wipe out our neighbors.  It was only a matter of time before the bubble burst would catch up with the satellite industry.  I had kept my Navy Reserve connection all these years so I looked at some time in uniform helping the Navy get IT moved onto ships.  Turns out I was not well qualified for that since I had not been keeping up with MSCE and CISCO certs but I did fit in nicely with a little Navy research lab that was working on robotics and needed an EE who could do everything from calculate torqe to program in machine code.

I accepted orders to active duty at the robotics lab in December of 2002 with no real expectation of ever leaving the lab.  By the summer of 2003, things were getting busy with calls for new technology on the battle field in Iraq.  We dept getting visits from people who were being escorted by 3 star Admirals.  In the fall of 2003, I made rank to Chief and less than 30 days later was asked if I could field a “robotics repair team” to Iraq.  Such a thing did not exist yet.

Since I was the only guy I knew in uniform who actually fixed EOD bomb robots as opposed to breaking using them, I figured I should train a few guys before I headed down range.  By Jan of 2004, I had 12 sailors trained up ready to deploy.  Interservice rivalry stuck its ugly head into play for awhile but eventually the Army got a clue and I finally took my team to Baghdad in April of 2004.  I set up the shop, got the service running, put the systems and proceedures in place and started  bringing in the sailors to run it.  In less than 4 weeks we had returned more than half of the damaged robots to service ensuring that no EOD team would deploy without a working robot.  By the end of six weeks we had a 24 hour a day operation that guaranteed “4 hours or less” turn around for a damaged robot or you get a new one.  By the end of 8 weeks, we were the receiving end of “air ambulances” for robots coming in from all over Iraq.  By the end of 10 weeks, not a day went by that we did not have a one star escorting some visitor through the facility.

I was back state side in less than three months with a whole new collection of medals from the Army and the Navy.  I returned to Reserve status and spent the next few years training up sailors who then rotated through that shop and other locations or did training here stateside for deploying forces.

When I got back from Iraq, I did not want to go back to building satellites.  Thankfully, my newly acquired skills made me a commodity in the world of underwater robotics and I found a position designing, building, operating and maintaing deep sea robots.  I retired from the Navy in 2006 after 22 1/2 years of service, active and reserve.  Decompressing from that life style and the combat tour in Iraq has been my primary focus since then.

My wife is still with me, I’m not sure why.  My kids seem happy to see me and I do my best to give them more opportunities than I had.  Robotics, sailing, horseback riding, war gaming are all interests but my family matters most.  Not bad for 40+ years and I am looking forward to the next 40 right here.

@M36:

This Marine has no desire to share his life story with the folks of cyberspace. This Marine was manufactured at Parris Island. That is all yall need to know.

That’s a damn fine answer, Marine.

Hoo-rah!

@Jennifer:

No religion was to be practiced in the Soviet Union.  I believe the rational behind Stalin’s orders were that if God would not accept all men equally, then he had no place in communism.

waaaat?  haven’t you read the communist manifesto?

I’ve been meaning to get around to this but haven’t found the time until now.Â

Mine is not a particularly interesting story - no particular hardship or drama, so probably won’t be made into a documentary anytime soon.  Still, it is generally a happy story, so who am I to complain if it lacks suspense.

I was born in 1966 in a small town (less than 3000) in the Canadian Prairies.  I am a third generation Canadian who’s great grandfather immigrated to Canada from the Ukraine just after the turn of the last century.  My father’s first language was Ukrainian and my grandparents spoke only a little English.  In contrast, I speak very little Ukrainian and my kids none at all.

I was the third son born to my parents, but my oldest brother had died in infancy before I was born, so I have just one brother.  I spent my first 18 years in my home town, going to school and getting into only mild amounts of trouble.  Arrested once, but it was only for drinking after hours at my place of employment and they let me go with a warning and didn’t even notify my parents or my employer.  I graduated from high school in 1984 having been at the top of my class academically the last 3 years.  I was a starter on the basketball and volleyball teams and was a high jumper in track.  I was a lifeguard at the local swimming pool.  My mom was a teacher and until he had a heart attack my dad managed an auto parts store.  How much more middle class can you get!

After high school, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do but I knew it would involve university, so I enrolled in a Bachelor of Commerce degree program with an emphasis on computers.  Got bored with that pretty quick, so in my second year, I took the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) and scored in the 97th percentile.  I started getting offers from law schools all over the place to enroll but being not yet 20 years old and having met and fallen in love with my future wife, I decided to stay at the same university and got my law degree in 1989.  Got married in 1988, between 2nd and 3rd year of law school.  I’m still married too.  It will be 20 years next year and while there have been some tough times in our life, I can’t honestly say that there have been too many tough times in our marriage.

After law school, I got an articling position at the largest law firm in the province and have worked there ever since.  Made partner after a few years and can’t say I have regretted any of my time here.  I make exceptionally good money, I own 4 cars, none of which is more than 5 years old and I live in a 7000 sq ft house with 7 bathrooms, an indoor swimming pool, a poker room and media room with a 133’ projection TV and 7 speaker surround sound.  The house backs on to a park and a lake and it takes me about 12 minutes to drive to my office.

I have three kids.  None of them have had any particular health problems and all have been easy kids to raise.  My oldest, a daughter, was born while I was articling and is graduating from high school this year.  Her academic average is above 90% and has been for years.  She wants to follow in Dad’s footsteps and become a lawyer.  My oldest son was born in 1990 and is in grade 11.  He also has an academic average about 90% and is interested in journalism or politics.  He was invited to attend a Global Young Leaders Congress in Washington and New York this summer and is looking forward to it.  My youngest son was born in 1994 and is finishing grade 7.  We’re not entirely sure, but he may be the least academically inclined of our kids but he is the most athletic.  He plays Tier 1 hockey and has been a provincial champion in speed swimming.  As far as I know, none of my kids are on drugs, drink too much or engage in any criminal activity.

I have been to Europe twice in the last two years, travelling there with my daughter the first time and my two oldest kids just last week.  It was a great experience watching my kids and their friends take in another culture and try to learn a new language or two.Â

Like I said, not too interesting.  On balance, a successful life at the midway point with prospects seeming quite good going forward.  We shall see.

SS

please read with a southern accent.

I was born 2 days before thanksgiving, 1991. it was snowy that day. I rember it had been a cold and early winter. even for the big bustling city of stamford connecticut it was mighty cold and my birth was met with a warm welcome. i grew up as  a little tike near the bordor region of conecticut and new york occasonilly switching from side to side.  but when i was 4 years old my parents did the unthinkable, they divorced.  my catholic mother who broke every commandent at least 10 times and hasn’t been in a chruch for over a score of years divoced my daddy. even though my mama, who never worked a day in her life till this very day, moved me, herself and my little sister to californa. but after 2 fortnights me and lil sis’s safty was entrusted with my dady’s sister. she lived in connecticut so we moved back.  my daddy was in some deep finacclcial diffucluties of some sort. so he visited us and was the most dilgent and hard workring carpenter on this side of the missisippi. however when i was halfway though 1st grade we were out on recall by are mother. since no leagal transaction ever occured we were required to be shipped back to calfornia cause our sole gaudian was mama dearest. . there we met are soon to be step- daddy and during the next two years  God almighty sent my us the gift of another little sister(knew  coud never and still can’t stand the first one) and my first( and hopefully last) brother cause.

we lived there untill i was ten and then moved back to conneticut. and you guess what my cathloic mama done did agian and did the unthinkable divorced my step dady when i  was eleven years of age. my grandpappy, the most honorable man i know, had to monaterly supply us cause a woman who never worked in a day of her life can’t possibly support 4 children. but he worked his whole life from the time of teh war till the day he died. worked many jobs too but the main one a insurance salesman.  we’ve were livin off the inhertinece of our great aunty my grandmas sister who i never had the pleasure of meting either was suppling us. however my mama had a very pecualties annd not right up in the noggin to put it lightly. so the authorties didn’t appreciate her paronia of schooling so her authoty was stripped and granted to my aunt. the one iw as talking bout earlier,– not the dead one fool. have you been paying attention to a samhill word i’ve said. but back to the story y’all.

this all happened in the febuary of my 12th year of life. me and my sister went to our aunt cause she was a papa’s sister while the younger two were shipped off back to cali were their papa was. when this happened i was reaffilated with my daddy side of the family.  and i finally poeced together i was half balck. on teh acount of me being 12 i always rembembered my daddy’s face but never  but the two and two cause i had no use of race untill my latter. years. never even knew i was related to rosa parks untill then. i now you may want to hid you prevois marragies esspecially if your a catholic woman but you don’t and hid a fact like that. withhin a year of  my arrivial to connecticut my daddy and my grandpappy passed away.  but we moved up a piece further north in ct,  that summer. my autny got big promotion. she ran the resindeices of  the poorman on welfare. however this was a governmental postition and got on the bad side of the mayor cause she actually wanted to help these poor folks. and when they say you’ll never work in this town agian the mean it. so we moved to atlanter where my two other aunts resided.

now two years have passed and nothing new except sucess, while  my real mama still hasn’t been to chruch  or worked a day in her life. i may not know where life may take me but i do know president of these United states of america is along the way.  yes long story for a boy of 15 and prutty mundane but this is it and i like to appplaud you for reading such a long tale. just remember vote 2024.  :roll: ( yeah a 38 year old prez.)

ps. i apologize for any mishaps in my spelling.

Cyan,

:? What was the need for the southern accent? You said you lived in Conn, New York and California. I fail to see where you could have picked one up from. On another point you seem like a very ambitous young man if all goes your way and you prepare yourself you could make it to pres…

-LT04

@losttribe04:

Cyan,

:? What was the need for the southern accent? You said you lived in Conn, New York and California. I fail to see where you could have picked one up from. On another point you seem like a very ambitous young man if all goes your way and you prepare yourself you could make it to pres…

-LT04

I currently live in atlanta but i don’t have a southern accent(or want one). i was actually forced to adopt a least favorite word, y’all. i just think stories sound funnier in a southern accent.  Is it me or does their seem to be more than one kind of southern accent? btw i have no idea what the weather was l ike on the day i was born.

Hmmm… I was born in CA and currently live in TX, and the only thing you needed to think of when I was writing my story was, “Ya take one false move your going down…”

GG

When I was in the Army I learned the difference between y’all and all y’all. And yes there are more than one type of southern accent.

-LT04

Okay, here’s my story in brief

I was born in Kitchener, Ontario in 1975 - my parents are from Winnipeg but they were studying at a Mennonite college there. Then at 10 months moved to Winnipeg. I have an older brother and a younger sister. My ancestry is Russian Mennonite - actually from the Ukraine. Grandparents emigrated in WWII.

At age 5, my family moved to Germany, where my Dad worked for the Mennonite Central Committee, and then came back to Winnipeg when I was 10, in 1986. After High School, I went to Canadian Mennonite Bible College for 3 years - anyone noticing a theme? For those who don’t know, Mennonites believe in adult baptism, the priesthood of all believers, pacifism and social justice (at least my brand does).

In Bible College I grew increasingly unconvinced with the faith, but only 10 years later after lots of struggle did I come out and declare myself agnostic to my family. Fortunately, they still love me. I just worry that they will try to brainwash my kids.

Anyhow, after bible college I got a B.A. in International Development Studies. I then did some voluntary work with Mennonite Central Committee as an office assistant with the Peace & Justice department. I then got a job as national conference editor with the national denominational news magazine. From there I went to work for the Communications Dept. at Mennonite Church Canada as a newswriter and webmaster.

Somewhere around this time I met and fell in love with my wife Maggie, and our 5th anniversary is coming up in May. She’s cute, funny, really nice, and smart, and I have no idea why she fell for me. I still can’t keep my hands off her, I can’t keep myself from hugging her everytime she walks into the room. Every night when we fall asleep I tell her that I love her and I always will.

Anyhow, working in all these church organizations as an agnostic got a little awkward, so I decided to go back to school. I entered law school (LSAT, 83rd percentile or something like that I think) where I did all kinds of stuff, ending up student council VP in 3rd year, and I was awarded the “Class of 1980 Award” for outstanding extracurricular involvement by my graduating class.

I am now articling with the Public Interest Law Centre and losing all my illusions of achieving social change. In about two months I will start my first job as a real lawyer, as a junior associate at a small litigation boutique firm. We own a nice old house (2000 sq. ft) that’s a 20 min walk from my new downtown office and fixing this house up has been our main project for the last 4 years. I know I could earn a lot more as a lawyer elsewhere, but there’s no way I could afford a house like this in Toronto or Vancouver.

My first political memories are from living in Germany and going on anti-nuclear protest rallies with my parents. During 9/11 I was sitting on the toilet in my brother’s house. The next day I broke down in tears while listening to a memorial service to the victims.

@froodster:

In Bible College I grew increasingly unconvinced with the faith, but only 10 years later after lots of struggle did I come out and declare myself agnostic to my family. Fortunately, they still love me. I just worry that they will try to brainwash my kids.

Well, this prompts me to tell the story of another life.

As those who remember me from the time I used to post regularly on this board might now, I’m German. I grew up in a very religious family and there was a time I really believed in God, Jesus and the devil, who scared the hell out of me. My family is catholic, but my mother is active in the charismatic movement. I’ve been to religious gatherings and once I was even made evangelizing people on the street (I despise people misusing their children for such purposes). But the older I got the more I realized, that faith is nothing real, it doesn’t support you. I became more and more depressed, I couldn’t imagine living without some kind of religion. Around 17 I started to drink, a lot. I don’t think I ever was an alcoholic, as today I have no problem with drinking just one glass of wine. But one day at age 20 I woke up in a hospital after passing out the night before. After that I had a huge hangover, not only from alcohol but from religion as well, everything I used to believe in fell apart. I realized, that an omnipotent being couldn’t be at all like the God portrayed by the Bible. How could such a being change its mind after drowning every being but those on the arch. I pretend that I still believed in some kind of God, as I still believed that there is a need for a meaning of live. But finally I realized that this is bullshit. You don’t have to rationalize everything you do. There is no need for a reason to do good things instead of bad. Do you really think, the only reason not to molest a child is because you would be punished in hell? Haven’t you noticed how good it feels to help someone? Anyway, when I let the last remains of my religion go, I felt a burden go away.

Soon afterwards I started studying physics at university. i got a “Vordiplom” in physics (somewhat comparable to bachelor) and shortly after that a “Vordiplom” in mathematics. After that I spent one year in the USA studying math. It was a cake walk. I took the hardest courses which were offered, and they were still easy. I got the impression, that the science education in the USA sucks. There are very few very exceptional universities, but the rest is just crap. I was horrified how little the engineering students knew about math. Just to make it clear, scientific research is rather good in the USA, there is more money than in Germany and many foreign professors move to the USA. But this is threatened by the current cultural climate.

When I came back to Germany, I was a little bit shocked how hard things had become again. It took me longer to finish my studies than I had hoped and expected, in fact my final exam will be this Tuesday.

P.S.: Christian family values? Read Mathew, 10:34ff to learn what Christianity does to families.

Meijing,
I’m not trying to argue with you (you’re a lawyer come on who would win this debate?)  but the way I have always seen it is you need faith to believe in God. You also need faith to believe there is nothing. That’s just gospel according to me but I’m curious as to what you think of that as I have never met an agnostic before. I live in northern NY where our diversity mostly consists of tall white Catholics, short white Catholics, fat white Catholics and thin white Catholics. (No I’m not a Catholic, I’m a Mormon. Although to be politically correct I should say I’m LDS but most people don’t know what that means)

-LT04

@losttribe04:

Meijing,
I’m not trying to argue with you (you’re a lawyer come on who would win this debate?)  but the way I have always seen it is you need faith to believe in God. You also need faith to believe there is nothing. That’s just gospel according to me but I’m curious as to what you think of that as I have never met an agnostic before. I live in northern NY where our diversity mostly consists of tall white Catholics, short white Catholics, fat white Catholics and thin white Catholics. (No I’m not a Catholic, I’m a Mormon. Although to be politically correct I should say I’m LDS but most people don’t know what that means)

-LT04

You need faith to believe in God, but you need doubt to not believe in God. Not believing God does not mean, to be sure, that he does not exist, but to be not sure, that he does. Giving up religion means embracing doubt. This probably sounds awful for a religious person who was brought up to believe that you need to be absolutely sure about something, but in fact it is not.

I was born at an early age.  I think my sign was “room 224”.  ba-da cha!

I was born March 4/73 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to two loving and caring parents (mother and father for some of you).  I grew up in a Christian home as well, went to church, went to church-camp, and i was on a Christian TV program for 6 years.  I was baptized when i was 16 years old.  I am technically a Christian, and i attend church and give them money from time to time (and i’m a big believer in the Mennonite Central Committee), but i guess that i’m still searching for truth (admittedly, i’m pretty lazy w.r.t. this as i’m quite busy in other respects and tired most of the time).
I graduated (w/ honors), got my B.Sc. in Chemistry (i focussed on advanced organic and biochemistries).  I then did an M.Sc. in Biochemistry and molecular biology and published 6 papers (including my thesis).  
I quickly got bored with this life, and looked for something with a little more fun in the job description.  I then became a “territory manager” for a pharmaceutical company.  I did well here (the quarter before i left i got the highest bonus out of around 300 reps) and was in a fast track to a management position.
Still i found the job to be very easy and although i enjoyed it, something was missing.  If i had a bad day, it was because one of my key clients didn’t have enough time for me - not because anything actually BAD had happened.  If i had a good day, it was because my numbers came out and showed me to be growing my business well and both me and my masters were becoming wealthier.
After one of my clients - a physician - banned me from his office for not giving him presents (it was against the rules, even tho’ several companies were doing it anyway) and changed his patients from my product to that of my competitors, i got quite angry.  I figured - fuck him - i’ll go into medicine, and be a better doctor than he is.  The fact is, i was being told from all over that i should go into medicine  I thought that here would be my chance to make a difference in people’s lives, to do something challenging and to be involved in people’s lives at a very real and personal level (i also thought that this would be a handy way to escape work in the salt-mines for when the aliens from Grargrotha IV invade us as they would want someone to keep their slaves happy . . . but i didn’t tell this to the interview board).
So i studied medicine for 4 years, then i did a 2 year family medicine residency with an interest in emergency medicine.  Currently i work in 2 ER’s, 1 urgent care center, and i have my own patients in my private practice.  
I love to travel - for 4 years i made it a practice to go somewhere and hang out for a month.  Last year it was Vancouver (i was with my then-g/f and working in the Vancouver General ER) and also Australia (i understand that it was a cold winter that year in winnipeg . . . :)).  The year before i travelled about Cuba for a month.  Before that was Belize.  I also spent around 6 weeks in Portugal with a girl i was dating - long story.  I’ve been to Mexico (several times) Brazil, Barbados, Holland (my uncle was a diplomat there) and Germany as well as all over the US (Phoenix, Boulder, Moab Utah, D.C., Seattle, Minneapolis, ND, SD, Miami, Tampa and Atlanta) as well as from sea to shining sea here in Canada.
I love women - i’ve dated over 50, but i’m down to one right now.  She’s beautiful, brings me supper when i’m working late in the ER, keeps my house clean, and her son does yard work for me (he’s 14, and a good kid).  
My political views are mixed - as most people can tell.  Particularly since my father recently secured the nomination for the Liberal party for the riding of Charleswood/St. James/Assiniboia and Headingly (around 80 000 people live here).  If he wins the next federal election, then he will be their Member of Parliament (traditionally a tight race) - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2306058560&ref=mf
I’m sure there is more, but lately my life has been work-sleep-work-sleep.