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I was born on December 3rd, 1965 on a small island called Amelia Island in Florida. The island is mostly a tourist haven for beach-goers and vactioners. However two major pulp mills also reside there owned by Rayonier and Container Corporation of America. So the island has 2 major sources of income, tourists and the mills.
Living on the island til I was 7, my family moved to Yulee, Florida. More of a backwoodsy town than anything, it was formed when a caboose engineer, David Yulee, decided to make his home at a junction of railroad tracks that split, one pair going to Jacksonville, Florida from Georgia and another pair that go to the island. Since that time it has developed into a small township. My family didn't live right in the town, but rather out a bit aways down a road called Blackrock Road. This road stretched along ways back into the woods many miles. We lived off a dirt road known as Glenwood Road and right on Belle River. It was there I would spend my next 9 years, learning some values in life about nature and maturity.
I took a job a small mom and pop store called Quicky Mart on Blackrock Road when I was 14, I worked there for about 10 months as a stocker/cleaner for the elderly couple that ran the store. Then my family decided to move down the road to a more populated area, but still off a dirt road, known as Water Road. At the age of 17, I dropped out of school and took a job at a gas station called Murray's Gas on a major highway known as A1A. I worked there for about 2 years. It was a bit of a walk (3 miles one way) to work, I would get lucky sometimes and get a ride from someone while walking down Blackrock Road, but there was mornings at 5am, especially in the winter, when it would just suck. BTW, for all you beginners changing your oil for the first time, if you spill oil on the engine and the engine is hot, there is no way to hide what you did, oil makes white smoke and smells very bad. So be careful.
I left Murray's to go work at Burger King on the Island, it was there I would make my way from the 'burger board' to eventually work as the maintenance man for the next 2 years. I then heard McDonald's was hiring and paying more than I was making at BK, so I went to work at McD's for the next 3 1/2 years, making my way up to PM shift manager. Then upon hearing that Wal-mart had just opened a store and was paying more than what I was making, I took a job there in the Garden Shop. I didn't really care for it, and moved to the shipping and receiving department and remained there for the next 3 years. After unloading 500+ trucks for Wal-mart, and not really going anywhere, I looked and found in the newspaper a job doing night audit, which was right on the beach. So I left Wal-mart to go work at Amelia Island Lodging Systems working there for the next 3 years.
An uncle, who had recently moved up to Knoxville, Tennessee, had
jokingly invited me to move up there to see what it was like, so I took
him up on his offer. I took a job as a night auditor in the Knoxville
Hilton, which was one of the lower end Hilton's, so the pay wasn't that
good. After about a year, I moved back to Florida, taking back my old job
at Amelia Island Lodging Systems for the next few months. I then heard
that AOL in Jacksonville was hiring for telephone technical support, so I
went to work for them. After a few months of being griped out in stereo
(headsets) for problems I could care less about, a took a chance and took
a job in Huntsville, Alabama
as a hardware technician at Davtronix. I worked there for the next 2 1/2
years for a great boss who would not only praise you for a job well done,
but award you with things to show his appreciation. But after doing the
same thing over and over, it was time to move on. Since I didn't have
family in Huntsville, I looked elsewhere for a job, ending up moving out
west to Salt Lake City,
Utah where I worked for the past 4 years as a Computer Operations
Manager for a small telemarketing company named Sandstar Family
Entertainment (now out of business) which was mostly mormon and
poorly managed but was great experience for me. I graduated from Stevens-Henager College, in May
2001. I Achieved my Associates Degree in Computer Network Administration
with High Honors and a GPA of 3.84. In November of 2001, the telemarketing
company and me parted ways and I moved to Colorado Springs, CO to stay
with my uncle so I can start fresh (same uncle that was in Knoxville, TN).
Read some about some of the fun events that have happened in my life |
