Information About Me
Updated 11-29-1999
Latest info towards the end
Born in Battle Creek, I attended Westlake
Elementary School (K-1), then
I moved to Minges Brook Elementary School (2-6).
I then attended Lakeview Junior High School in 7th and 8th grade. Then,
I finished my primary education at Battle Creek's Lakeview High School,
grades 9 through 12.
I decided to attend Central Michigan University, and started as a
freshman right after high school graduation, Fall semester 1994. I majored
in Computer Science.
During my second year of college, I was hired at Pearce Computer Center
as a computer technician. I rapidly progressed each month on my job,
and lastly held the Advanced Systems Support position, sometimes referred to
as the Assistant Systems Administrator, during my last two years at CMU. I helped with the maintenance and
operation of 3 computer labs: 1 Pentium-II class lab (the "Multimedia Lab"), 2 Pentium class
WindowsNT labs and 1 Unix lab. If a server failed or something went wrong, I was usually
the first person called to attempt solving the problem(s). (even close to midnight!)
My second year of college was full of different and new things...
Besides coming to a completely new atmosphere, moving around, and learning
how to study a slightly different way, I was also dealing with some heavy
personal issues... I was dealing with my sexuality. I now realize that I
have had 'gay feelings' ever since I can remember, but they really started
to surface on the inside when I started High School. Like most gay teens,
I did not know how to deal with them. I bottled them up -- I closeted
myself. This is mostly common with teenagers dealing with their
sexuality, trying to identify themselves as 'slightly different' than the
rest of their classmates. Ya know -- boy meets girl, gets married, and
has 2.3 children. I did not feel that way. I was trying to play along
with the rest of my classmates by dating a few girls, but as soon as I got
to college, I learned that I didn't have to pretend anymore. After
coming out to myself, I came out to another gay person from my hometown
right before I started at CMU. He helped me out a lot with questions
that I had... Then, during my second year, I told a roommate, who was
really cool about it. During that year, I started to gather information
about being gay, and how to tell my parents, which I felt would be the
hardest thing ever. I heard about GLASS (what is now known as Prism) that
year, but I just couldn't get the courage to go.
During my third year of college, I had two new roommates.
I ended up telling one of them (coming out to him). He was just as cool
about it as the last roommate. Coming out was getting easier every time
it happened! I then met a person who was going to GLASS and he invited me
to go to a meeting. After going to the first meeting, I kept going.
During the last half of that Fall semester (1996), they needed a secretary
for the group. Around that time, the group had decided to change the name
from GLASS to today's Prism. I was then elected in as interim secretary
on the electoral board. At the end of Spring 1997, I decided to run again
as secretary.
Throughout the summer, proving to be a preview of my fourth year
here at CMU, there was a major change in the upper-level positions of Prism. The co-
presidents could not take their positions for the coming Fall 1997 semester.
Instead of letting the group fall apart, I decided to take in as interim President of
Prism. We then had a general vote to officialize my position as President of
Prism. What a ride!
At the first part of the year, I again had two new roommates. I told them both
right away, and again my coming-out experience was awesome. They were both
really cool about it, and we joke around quite often. The second roommate moved
out to become an R.A. in a different hall, so I naturally got a new roommate,
who does not know. I don't believe I will explicitly tell him, seeing how his
behavior does not give me any indication that he will be as 'cool' with it as
my past roommates.
I was involved with Prism for roughly 2 1/2 years,
up until I graduated. I wanted to hold the group together, and I hope it will
be kept going for many, many years to follow. 1999 marked Prism's 26th year at
Central Michigan University...
Visit Prism's Homepage
Also see my links page for more links concerning
gay/lesbian/bisexual issues and information...
I graduated in May 1999 from Central Michigan University
with a Bachelor's of Science degree, in Computer Science. I am so glad to have graduated,
and I'm sure my parents are, too! Although it's time to make the real money, I do
miss all of the friends that I made while I was there. Not just college students, but a lot
of people I met from the Wayside on Tuesday nights (New Music Night, aka "Freak Night").
And the music was awesome -- I'm talking about Marilyn Manson, Tori Amos, Sound Garden,
bjork, KoRN, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against The Machine, TOOL, Nine Inch Nails, etc..
I can't list them all, even though I would only miss a few weeks per year! It was good.
Currently, I live in Ann Arbor, MI (love this town!)
and work for Bell & Howell Information and Learning as a Software Engineer. I moved to Ann Arbor
in May 1999; I started moving even before my graduation from CMU. Ann Arbor is pretty cool ..
especially downtown. Just don't get caught in the rush hour
traffic! Coffee shops everywhere, usually filled with more than coffee -- especially sweets!
What a gay population! Rainbow stickers everywhere.. Lots of attractive men too!
I've met a few interesting people here-and-there. I work out typically 6 days a week, cardiovascular
and weight lifting / power lifting (started that in June 1999). I have maintained a steady body weight,
while replacing the fat-weight with muscle-weight. I'm not going for the musclehead-man look, just
trying to lose weight and not find the toothpick look.