| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | As a freshman on my high school track and field team we were at a meet with our rival. The last event was the 4x400m relay. The anchor leg of the relay got injured, so my coach just said to throw me in at the anchor leg and see what I could do. I received the baton in 3rd place and was able to pull ahead of the first place runner and win the race. As a freshman, to accomplish that feat and experience the joy and excitement of my coach and fellow teammates, especially the seniors, was a very profound and memorable event in my life. It was the beginning of my love of the sport of running. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | I most identify with my father. After college and passing the CPA exam he started his own accounting practice and built it into a very successful and long standing practice. He was always proud of the fact that he was able to spend his life self employed and was self made. After law school and passing the bar exam, I started my own law practice. Since then I have continued to operate my law practice and am very proud that I made it into a success and get to be self employed. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I admire the character traits of humility, compassion, perseverance, and dedication. I strongly feel people need to stay grounded and not get full of themselves. People also need to have the ability to understand the situations and limitations of others, and have compassion toward others in times of need and have just basic understanding. In terms of the other two traits listed, I feel strongly about finishing what one has started and seeing all things to the end regardless of the possible outcomes or troubles along the way. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | I can only really think of something recent. I coach track and field part-time for a local girl's team. Our indoor track meets end late on Friday nights so we always go to Wawa after the meet, along with 50 other teams. Last season while in line and telling the girls to hurry up, as I pushed my purchase toward the register, my coffee fell over and spilled all over the counter and cashier. All of the girls saw this happen. I helped the cashier clean up the mess and held up the line for about 10-15 minutes due to the mess I made. The girls I coach still make fun of me about it and I am sure will never let me live it down. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I would travel to Hawaii and consider relocating there. I love tropical islands, and it provides all of the beauty of an island getaway, but also provides great terrain and areas to run unlike other tropical islands. Also, it is still in the United States, which is a great benefit for travel and safety reasons. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | Well, I do have a daughter and hope to pass on to her the character traits I listed above. I also want to make sure she understands she is free to follow whatever life and career path she wishes, and choose the career that best suits her personality and interests. I was not raised in such an environment and ended up in a career that made me unhappy and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to change careers, but I wish I had not wasted so many years being unhappy. I constantly try to impart the importance of education, hard work, compassion, proper manners and kindness to my daughter as I believe those attributes have helped me greatly in life. |
