It’s the Merriment for Me
Paris has added Toni to the conversation. How did I become committed to adventure and play as a lifestyle? The condensed version? Nature, nurture, mistakes, heartbreak, and a barbell. I was the hard working precocious kid that everyone expected to be a leader. My ability to answer a few questions and score well on a few tests, the clarity and bass in my voice, and my use of a few big words made every adult in my life believe that I was the next great hope. In Kindergarten, my teacher called me Cinderella because during breaks, naptime, and afterschool, I could be found wiping down desks. Grade school was "year round" with 2 to 4 week breaks between LONG stretches of schooling. In 8th grade I had a meeting with my father and school administration requesting they stop pressuring me about being Valedictorian (they were offended, to say the least). In high school, I was a part of a mentorship/scholarship program that required us to take preparatory and professional development c...