I was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on July 27, 1982. My mother who was single at the time was going to Southern Mississippi College. This is where I met my first friend and my future dad (step-dad though he will always be my father of the heart.) As I said I meet my first friend here, her name was Pandora; her mother was Judy whom is also my god-mother. When I was little I remember playing with Pandora, games such as house and Hi Ho! Cherry-O, but mostly we got into trouble. According to my mother we did some pretty crazy things like take bathes together, throwing all of our parents bra’s and panties out a 3rd floor window, moving furniture around to make a “camp site.” Thinking back on it I am sure I was a major pain to my mother. But in the end we all had fun.

Anyways, my mother got married in beautiful Florida. Shortly there after we moved to Louisiana, that’s where my sister (half-sister) was born. I was seven at the time, and addicted to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Though I was so young I loved my sister as if she were my own daughter, I helped my parents in anyway that I could. I even taught her, her one of her first words, “Hello.” We went on to torture each other, but with love and compassion. I shared everything with her and played with her when ever I had the time. We moved to Texas at some point I don’t quite remember when I think I was around 10 or 12 as I was just finishing up grade school and moving on to middle school.

Anyway Texas was fun I meet some of the friends that left the most impact on me. But Texas was also a dark time for me as I will tell you later. We lived in a nice neighborhood and I meet Craig there at the time we loved, Three Ninjas (starting to see a pattern here.) We even dressed as them I was Rocky, Craig was Colt, and my sister was Tum Tum. I also learn my “shrewd” business sense here as I ran a small comic and card store from my front porch. I also learned to skate here. But we had to move as my parents bought a brand new house close to a nice middle school, in fact I was within walking distance, which meant no more school bus for me.

I went through only one grade at the new middle school though. It was some time during my first year at middle school that the dark in Texas happened. I was staying the night at Craig’s new apartment which was common for us to do at the time. I used to spend the night at his place almost every weekend and visa-versa. Anyway one night when we were out and about we meet one of his “older” friends. At the time I was still young a quite innocent, we played games like truth or dare with him. He then persuaded us to go his place and play some video games. My memory is a little lacking as I try to forget most of this, but he got me alone in his room and well I will leave the rest as it is not a topic that should be brought up. But I will leave you with it was a dark day and that I was sexually abused.

We left for South Carolina there after I was around 12 or 13. After the event in Texas I wasn’t as outgoing as I used to be and I shut myself to the world. I am still trying to recover from that event. I went to some nice schools here and graduated from Hampton High here also. My time at Hampton was some of my greatest years. There I meet my Best Friend Chris we are still in contact and he has gone into the Networking career just like me, except he went the college route.

Shortly there after graduation from Hampton I joined the Military (Air Force) as a Computer and Network Troop, my first base after Basic Training and Tech School was sunny Beale, California. That is were the weight problems really started to kick in, up till then I was active and ate healthy. When I got to Beale I became a recluse and ate unhealthily, this was also at the time that the Air Force didn’t care about fitness as much as it does now. Anyway after Beale I went to Osan, Korea. I meet some cool people here, and got a little bit more active with my life, though this is where I learned that my parents had moved apart because my father had gotten addicted to pain killers (this was actually going on back when I was in California) I had a falling out of sorts and shut myself down again after learning this, which was just before I was shipped to Misawa, Japan.

At Japan was when I got into my first serious piece of trouble with the Military. I was not to their standards and they want me to be or they were going to cut me. I didn’t show progress and they took a stripe from my because of it and other things. Anyway I formed a club for Role-Players shortly after that, and was shipped to Iraq, which is where I am now. Out here I have been given the time to reflect on what’s happening in my life and to decide on what needs to be done. I have decided I have focused too much on life’s distractions and not on life itself. I ask you all for any support you can offer, and I will give you the same when ever you need it.

My Life Goals:

1) Learn to write and speak in Hebrew and Japanese.

2) Convert to Judaism.

3) Earn my Master's in Electrical Engineering.

4) Find a Significant Other and get married.

5) Lose weight and run a marathon.

The Priorities:

1) Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering.

1) Converting to Judaism.

1) Lose weight.

2) Finding a Significant Other.

2) Learning Hebrew.

2) Run a marathon.

3) Getting married.

4) Learning Japanese.

My Plan:

1) Get rid of most of my distractions; force myself to focus on my Goals and the Task at hand.

-> a) Get rid of my Xbox, and my Game Cube, leaving my PS3 (which is a newer system, and is also a Blu-Ray Player.)

-> b) Get rid of all my games for Xbox and my Game Cube, and 70% of my games on the PS.

-> c) Getting rid of books that I will not have the time to read -and- have not read yet, other than the educational or self-help books.

-> d) Get rid of my movies. All of them!

2) Sign up for classes with a College. Take them slow one at a time, if needed.

3) Play D&D only twice a month. Instead of my usual 5-6 times?!

4) Spend the extra time from D&D to study Hebrew, and Judaism.

5) Reach out for support from any person or organization I can, Mainly Jewish Organizations. I have already taken this step and sent an e-mail to NY Aish.com's branch.