| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | My family was stationed in Italy when I was younger. Every year, the military hosts a festival for all the servicemen, their families, and the local support staff and their families. It was at a local park and would have food, drinks, rides for the kids and sports games for the adults. One year, my father was in charge of it. My brother and I were able to ride along with him and help make sure everything was running as it should. My dad was always good at organizing and logistics - this was probably my first time seeing him give orders to other servicemen. Since we helped him out all day, we were given passes to ride all the rides and play the carnival style games. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | I think I most identified with my father. Especially as I became an adult, I realized how much we had in common. He enjoyed learning; especially history. I believe he did well in the military partly because of his love of military history. I suppose as most children do, I became interested in history and the military because of this. It was always something we could talk about. One of his other passions was automobiles; something he got from his father. I found my way to loving them too - cars, motorcycles, whatever had an engine. He and I would go to car shows or discuss whatever new super cars were coming out. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | The trait I admire most in someone is their ability to be humble. There is nothing wrong with being confident in your abilities, but I have never been able to get along with someone who can't understand that they can still learn something new. From my experience, people with a really good sense of humor (another trait I admire) usually fall into the category of also being humble. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | I can't think of the funniest thing to ever happen to me, but I've been around a lot of funny situations with my friends. That seems to be more the way it happens with me - almost as though the world aligns when I'm around a certain group for funny situations to unfold. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I've been lucky that I've been able to travel quite a lot in my life. My father was in the Army and we spent some time overseas. As an adult, I spent some time in Africa and that was an amazing experience. I would love to travel across Asia - start in Japan and work my way west and south; visiting countries such as Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | I would like my children to continue to be curious. I can remember being amazed by electronics as a child and I was lucky to have a father who nourished my inquisitive nature. He was well read and studied, and he would never dumb anything down in his explanations of things I was interested in. He always found a way to relate complex ideas in way a child could understand without pandering. I hope I'm able to do that with my children as well. |
