about

Well, if you havn't guess by now, my name is Christian.

Since this part if about me, I figure I'll tell you a little about myself. Where to start. Well, I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. I was born here in 1975 at Norfolk General Hospital. My mother took me home to Virginia Beach and there I remained until about 1985. At that point, I moved to Paradise Valley in Cleveland, Georgia. This was a very beautiful and fun place. My grandparent's had a farm of 11 acres which followed up the side of a mountain. There we raised chickens, goats, and cows. I used to go riding through the mountains with two friends - who were twins but one was fat and one was skinny - on 4-wheel ATVs. One time, we were riding through a valley of clay and I lost control of the ATV and flipped over. That was scary!

Anyway, I attended 5th grade there at White County Elementary School. Just behind the school was the county sewage treatment plant where my Pa (grandmother's husband) worked. That was such an interesting place because we used to find all sorts of things floating through there. One time we found hundreds of dollars that someone must have flushed down the toilet.

So, about a year later, I moved to Apopka, Florida to live with my Dad. I attended Bear Lake Elementary School and then Teague Middle School where, in the 6th grade, one was in middle school (a concept foreign to a Virginia child). Although I enjoyed my time in Apopka and loved being with my Dad, the constant battle between my parents landed me back in Virginia Beach to finish out the 6th grade - back in elementary school mind you - at Thalia Elementary. I remember we lived on Wiley Place in a townhouse that my grandfather owned. That was where my Uncle Pete got arrested for being obstriperous (I don't know if that is how you spell it). Now I was going to Independence Middle School (remember this for later in the story) for the seventh grade. It was around this time that my mother met a man named Mark. They fell in love and got married and off we moved to the Kempsville neighborhood of Virginia Beach. I was moved, yet again, to another school, this time Brandon Junior High School, for the 8th grade. Our new house was wonderful. Three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a living room, dining room, family room, and in the backyard we had a tennis court and basketball court. I would later come to find out that the tennis amd basketball courts were for neighborhood use but there was not convincing me of that when we first moved in.

So here I lived for nearly five years - a long stint in my life. Now, back in Florida in the 6th grade, I had begun my interest of music and joined the band. There, I decided I would play the tuba. Imagine, if you will, a 4 foot boy trying to play a 5 foot tuba. It was a sight, especially when I would lug it home. At Independence, I switched to the trumpet, or more appropriately, the corona. My Uncle Mark had an old instrument which he gave me and I taught myself how to play. Mind you, we could not afford lessons, so it was me and the band teacher all the way. At Brandon I was asked to play the baritone or euphonium. There was nobody else to play the instrument and the school would purchase it for me so I agreed. This became the pinnacle of my, thus far, musical career. By the time I left Brandon Junior High School, I had garnered not only a couple of solo's in the spotlight, but also the 9th Grade Band Student of the Year Award. I was definitely hyped up for high school.

Tenth grade brought me to Salem High School. What a place! At the time, it was the largest high school in the Commonwealth. Flipped to stand on its side, it was taller than the Empire State Building. My three years at Salem were filled with exciting times, interesting people, and days filled with learning about everything I could get my hands on. The real highlights of high school were winning multiple awards in the chorus group, Madrigals, which was now my new musical passion, starring in three high school musicals, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Godspell," and "Anything Goes," being involved in the Student Advisory Council, and being awarded Student of the Month in November 1992. I graduated from Salen High School in 1993 and after great debate between Shenandoah University, St. Andrew's College, George Mason University, and Old Dominion University, I ended up choosing ODU.

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