| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | Winning the fifth grade spelling bee for my elementary school. Though being a fairly good student, I was not expected at all to make it past the first few rounds. To everyone's surprise I correctly spelled my opponent's misspelled word and went on to seal the deal with "pickle" as my final word. That word had special meaning after eating myself sick on pickles in the past summer. My prize was a dictionary that is still kept on the bookshelf in my father's home. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | I feel that I most closely identify with my mother. Growing up I have watched her endure numerous disappointments (big and small) from her family and in her career. Through all of it I have not seen her take anything personally or react with anything with anything but kindness. I try to do the same in my life and detach from any external disturbance or provocation. In addition we also share a similar sense of humor and have the unique ability of carrying on about five different conversations with each other at the same time. The latter can make difficult for others to keep up. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I would say the top five character traits I admire the most in an individual are honesty, integrity, open-mindedness, willingness, and confidence. With honesty I look for people to share their true feelings regarding a situation or decision to be made even if it may not be popular. I define integrity as someone matching their actions with their words, but I also look for when people own mistakes they have made and recognized a divergence between their intention and reality. I believe open-mindedness mostly involves an attitude that someone doesn't know everything or even that what they think they know might not be so, and therefore keeps the door open for new ideas and methods. Willingness in my experience is the ability to do what needs to be done without complaint as well as try something different and step outside of their comfort zone. Confidence appeals to me as the ability to set aside potentially negative consequences (real or fancied) and strive to complete a task or goal. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | One day in my last year at college a friend and I planned to ride bikes through campus with fireworks strapped to the back of them, having the fireworks go off as classes let out in the afternoon. Right when the bell rang we lit the fireworks and started off through campus, but almost immediately the chain on my bike snapped and I crashed on the sidewalk between two lecture halls. I dove for cover while the firework attached to my bike shot off rockets above the crowd of students exiting the the buildings. After the dust settled, I calmly got up off the ground and said, "Well I guess I'm walking to class." Luckily I found another friend right away and joined him as he walked home from class. What was even more fortunate is that nobody was hurt other than myself suffering a scraped knee and a little embarrassment. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I love North America, not only because I'm from the United States but also because of the variety of ecosystems and natural beauty in our nation as well as Canada and Mexico. If time and money were no object I would travel around the continent in a camper and explore all that North America has to offer from its National Parks to the spots only the locals know. I also have friends and family that seem to have spread out with the wind and live all over the US and Canada. It always seems like there isn't enough time to see them all or for long enough when we do get together. It would be great to see my loved ones for as long as they could stand me, which may be a longer than the typical stay considering I'd have my own accommodations. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | If I were to have children of my own I would hope to pass on to them three core values which I feel have helped me lead a satisfying and fulfilling life; a strong work ethic, desire to help others, and willingness to ask for help. From my early childhood it was impressed onto me to work harder than those around me in order to accomplish my goals. I know this definitely led to my success in rugby being that I am not naturally athletic and ranked nearly last for strength and speed. However, I made it a point to outwork everyone around me on and off the field as well as compete at higher levels in order to become a better player. In the end, I earned a spot on the Collegiate All-American men's rugby team. The work ethic instilled in me and nurtured throughout my athletic career has translated to my profession where I am and continue to rise as a successful audiologist. As long as I can remember I have wanted to help others. I feel that has been best demonstrated through various volunteer activities I took part in throughout my life as well as always wanting to be part of team. Sharing my time and experience to help those in need is the most rewarding way I spend my time. And though I was employed to do so, travelling around the world to fit hearing aids in developing countries in addition to training local community health workers to carry on the work once we left, is the best experience of my life so far. Another part of what drives me is the desire to do better. Being part of a similarly focused team fills that need while providing opportunities to help those around me on a daily basis. The willingness to ask for help did not come to me until completing my education. Though I was able to accomplish much by means of self-propulsion, I am so grateful that I finally hit walls I could not breach on my own. Once I finally realized I didn't have to do everything on my own and recognized needing help isn't a sign of weakness, my life became much easier. Now overcoming obstacles or difficulty in my daily life is as simple as being aware of what is easier to do myself and what isn't. It's not a matter of can I do something alone, much of which I may be able, but is it worth it to toil with a problem on my own rather than ask someone for help. In my experience it is never worth it to go it alone and make things more difficult than they need to be. |
