Playing and watching sports

I have loved playing and watching sports for basically my whole life.  I started at the age of six playing soccer. I loved soccer. The position I played is forward. I started travel soccer early and I was pretty dang good. I loved playing and not a whole lot of people stopped me. As I got older though, I was involved in more things and as I got more involved with different things, the less time I could spend with soccer. Even though I stopped doing travel soccer, that did not mean I stopped playing.  In high school I did coed soccer with boys and girls. That is when I also started playing a new position, goalie. I was not the best but I was decent. The other sport I played when I was young was basketball. I played in the Dublin Youth Association. I just played for fun. I never played on a school team before, but I always played for fun and I like the competition of playing people. I was always pretty good. My height always helped me and I was pretty strong on the inside. I continued to play and I continue to play today. I always like the competition and the exercise. Along with playing sports, I like watching sports. Ohio State has always been my favorite team. I love watching the Ohio State football team. My cousin was on the team and while he was I got to meet some of my favorite players. I have lived in Ohio for 16 years. For the first 7 years of my life, I was too young to understand sports but as I got older I started playing sports and started to understand them too. I got into Ohio State and ever since they have been my team. They have had good times and bad times, but you stick with who you like and stay strong. I also like the Ohio State basketball team. I have autographs of a lot of my favorite players that were on the team. They have grown stronger over the years but they have not become champions yet. I am still waiting and watching though. I also like the Crew and the Columbus Blue Jackets.  I like to play different sports along with basketball and soccer just for fun. I like ultimate frisbee, football, and more. I have not played on any school teams but I like playing for fun.

Reefing

Throughout my middle and high school years, I needed some cash to spend so I decided to do some refereeing. I was a soccer referee for 6 years and a basketball referee for 4 years. I started soccer refereeing when I was 12 years old reefing in the Dublin Soccer League. I was reefing kids 6 to 8 years old. As I continued to ref, I started reefing kids 9, 10, and eventually starting reefing kids 13 and 14 years old. The older the age that you ref, the more money you make. It is something that I greatly enjoyed. I love reefing and working with the coaches. The kids had fun, the coaches had fun, and I had fun. The parents were really respectful. You had to be prepared for coaches or parents that caused problems but overall they were all respectful. Basketball reefing is the exact opposite. Few coaches and parents are respectful, but the coaches can get on your nerves. However, the money is pretty good. I made a decent amount of money doing what I liked to do. Even though coaches yell at me, I liked doing it, it is fun, and I like working with kids. I got lots of compliments reefing soccer and basketball from coaches and parents. I actually reefed my cousin’s game. My uncle was the coach of his son’s team, my cousin. It was great fun, and you remember certain teams you reefed and certain coaches remember you. I also reefed my neighbor’s daughter’s team. I like going over there and talking with them a lot, and I like talking to Madison and Reed, the two kids. I reefed her soccer games until she moved into travel soccer. It was very good pay for both soccer and basketball reefing. I was doing something I liked while making lots of money. Lots of people didn’t show up for soccer reefing and I got to add games as the day went on to the point where I made around $50 to $60 in one day. There was not a lot I wanted as a kid in middle school or high school. It fun to watch the kids have a good time and have fun playing. In basketball, I knew a lot of the kids also. My brother’s friends played on certain teams I reefed. It did not matter how many kids or coaches I knew, I just liked reefing soccer and basketball.

Dublin

Dublin, Ohio is one of the best places to live. I moved to Dublin, Ohio at the age of seven with my parents and my two brothers. Our house was getting too small because of our growing family. My parents also needed to make more money to support the family. Moving to Dublin was the best choice in my opinion. The school system they have is excellent. With my problems with ADD, I had problems with taking notes and finishing tests on time. The assistance that not only the special needs teachers offers you but also the teachers are amazing. I had trouble with math and I was struggling with it in middle school and part of high school until I ran into Mr. Schuster. This man spent before school and after school helping me with math and ever since, I have done so much better. The neighborhood that we live in is so friendly, kind, and caring. I really enjoy just hanging out and playing with them.  The number of restaurants located in Dublin is hard to count. They have a little bit of everything. They have Mexican restaurants, pub restaurants, ice cream shops, burger joints, breakfast places, and so much more. My favorite restaurant in Dublin would have to be The Rusty Bucket. The Dublin AMC movie theater is really nice also. My friend Nick and I always go there to watch a movie when he comes over.  My grandma and I also have seen a few movies there too. One of the best places to go though is the Columbus Zoo. Each time I go there, they always seem to have something new. I love going to the zoo since I was little. My grandma is a docent there and gets free passes for her grandkids. Even though I am 23, I still like looking and seeing all the animals. It is a very special place for me. Right next to the Columbus Zoo is Zoombezi Bay Water Park. It has been around for some time now but it is not as old as the zoo. It is a wonderful waterpark with tons of fun rides. The Muirfield pool is a fun place to go to cool off in the summer. The Dublin soccer fields host tons of Dublin league soccer games each. There is so much more things to do in Dublin, but that is how great it really is.

My friends

 

My friends are some of the best friends you can have. True throughout middle school, high school, college some friendships might grow weaker, some friendships just grow stronger. The ones that continue no matter what, those are your true friends. Nick is an excellent example of a best friend. We met each other in middle school where we became close friends. We went to different high school but nothing changed the friendship we had. We still hung out, went to movies together, and had sleepovers. During sophomore year, however, Nick’s dad got a better job in Boston, Massachusetts, and Nick moved away. That did not destroy the bonds we had already built though as friends. Every other summer, he visits me at my house, and the other summers I visit him at his house. I always look forward to seeing him again. This is a bond that is special because even when he moved away we still saw each other and kept that connection going. We talk on the phone every now and then, but we always make sure to save a date for when we visit each other. He will always be my best friend. I have lots of other excellent friends that I would also never give up. My friend sat Muskingum are the best. While it is true I have lots of friends at Muskingum, I have a couple in particular that I spend more time with than anyone else. Ellen, Tasha, Christian, Danny, and Sarah are my closest friends at Muskingum. These are the people I hang out with most. Christian is my main man at Muskingum. We have spent hours together just having fun and playing. We are really close. He and his roommates even helped me when I was having a seizure. Christian knows I have epilepsy, and he knows what to do when I have one. Ellen and Tasha are my best friends that are girls. Even though Tasha is not here as much because she is doing her student teaching, we did lots of things together when she was here. I met Ellen, Tasha, Christian, and Danny all in the same program, The First Step Program. It is basically a transition between high school and college life.  I have basically known all four since freshman year. I was doing Big Brothers Big Sisters, a mentoring program, and I had a little named Will. I would play with Will every Thursday at 3:30 because that is when his school let out. Tasha would come with me and we would both have fun hanging out with him. I have done lots of fun things with all of my friends, and I would never change who I have as friends.

My family

My family has always been there for me, through the good and bad times. I have my mom, dad, and two younger brothers, Travis and Jacob. Travis is 20 and goes to Ohio State University, and Jacob is 17 and goes to Dublin Jerome High School. My mom is head of admissions at Grady Memorial Hospital and my dad is an engineer. I have all four of my grandparents from both my mom and dad’s side. My dad’s family is very big. My dad’s parents are in their late 80’s. My dad has 10 brothers and 1 sister and they each have 2 to 3 kids meaning I have about 10 uncles, one aunt, and about 30 plus cousins all on my dad’s side.  Most of them live in Kentucky so whenever I get the opportunity to go down with my family I do. I have family in other states including North Carolina, Georgia, and Oklahoma. When we went down to North Carolina last summer, we stopped by and saw my aunt, my dad’s sister. I have not seen some of my dad’s brothers in a little while. My dad has one brother in Georgia and one brother in Oklahoma with his family. I hope to see them both real soon. We have extremely big family reunion where I get to see everyone. Even though they only happen every once and a while, it is still fun. I hardly ever get certain family members so when I do I have to make it count. One of my cousins is Aaron Pettrey. He was the kicker for Ohio State for a couple of years. He plays for the Cleveland Gladiators now. I also got an opportunity to see my great grandma before she passed away. She was over 100 when she died. My mom’s side is smaller. Mom’s parents are a little younger than my dad’s parents. My mom has one brother, my uncle, who has three kids, my cousins. My mom’s parents live in Westerville and my mom’s brother lives in Tartan Fields basically 5 minutes away from our house. I love whenever I get to see my cousins, Jack, Carly, and Lucy. They mean the world to me and I would do pretty much anything for them. I love my family and they have done so much for me, especially my mom and dad. They have done and will do anything for me. My family and I are so close and I am extremely happy I have them.

Circle K

Circle K has been a wonderful experience for me at Muskingum University. I love volunteering, and Circle K was a perfect match for me. Muskingum University might be a small University but it has the most Circle K members. I do a lot of clubs and activities at Muskingum but this club is one of my favorites. I can enjoy what I like to do, help others out, make friends, and be active. I did a lot of volunteering in Middle school and High school, and I wanted to continue volunteering. One of the volunteering experiences I enjoy most that we do multiple times each year is going to the Beckett house. The Beckett house is a retirement home. We go there and just hang out and play with the old folks. I have a blast, and I made a new friend in Jason. Circle K does a lot of other fun volunteering projects including walking dogs at the Guernsey Animal Shelter, clean up campus, and raking leaves. I have actually put my two cents in about what I think we should do and Chelsea, the president, thought it was a great idea. We did an Epilepsy Awareness day for the first year. As a person with epilepsy and knowing how serious it is, I feel like this was something that needed to come out.  Also, November is Epilepsy Awareness Month so I felt like if we were going to raise Epilepsy Awareness, this was a month we were going to do it. We handed out lavender ribbons, the color of epilepsy awareness and a little baggie filled with facts about epilepsy and a couple of other things. It was such a wonderful time and I hope we continue it. Christ’s kitchen is another one of those fun things we do where we volunteer and help the less fortunate. It is a fun thing to do serving people and helping out.  We work with the Kawanians, another club, and we have cookout with them. We grow closer with them and as a club. They give us money to pay off our fees and give us money to do some of our volunteering activities. Over the years, we have grown in numbers as a club, and we have also grown closer as a club. We hang out more together, eating dinner together as a club, and movie night as a group. It is a club that I hope to do more with now and in the future.

BBBS

Throughout my years at Muskingum Universtiy, I have been in many clubs including game club, Circle K, and Fish Out of Water, but no club has been greater than Big Brothers Big Sisters. Big Brothers Big Sisters is a mentoring club where a big, someone who is older like a college student or adult, is paired with a little, elementary or middle school kid, and the big spends time with that little. There are lots of kids living at their grandparents whose real parents are not there, or maybe there is just a single mom or dad, whose other parent is not there. The kid needs a role model. Someone they can talk to, go to, and feel safe with. I started with Big Brothers Big Sisters freshmen year and I was working with a little kid named Will. Me and Will’s friendship grew into something that is extremely special. I started to spend extra time with him after New Concord Elementary, where Will went, let out. I would pick him up and play with him on the playground. As our friendship grew, he started opening up more to me. Our friendship grew stronger and stronger each week. Eventually, his grandparents allowed him to go up to Muskingum University with me. We would play for hours on facebook, eating in the dining hall, and we would play with my friends at Muskingum. His birthday is September 24^th and for the majority of the parties we would go bowling. Will loved bowling and he always had fun. He lived with his grandparents and has two dogs. We would always go to the Chess Center events whether it was game night or magician. No matter what we did we would always have fun doing it. We would always like spending time with Tasha, one of my friends at Muskingum. She would come down with me a lot to see him with me and we all had fun together. We also liked to go to Circle K and get Polar Pops. Will was a very energetic and very smart kid. Junior year, I won School Based Big Brother of the Year not knowing that they even had awards for BBBS. It is probably my greatest award. Sadly, his mom chose to take him to Reynoldsburg to go to school there. Even though I hardly ever see Will, I will always have the memories. Someday I hope to see him again, and we will get to hang out like we used to.

Scouting

Scouting was one of the best decisions of my life starting from Cub Scouts. Scouts have taught me life lessons and skills that you can only find by actually being in Scouts. Starting in Cub Scouts, we learn the basics about camping including fishing and hiking. The pinewood derby was tons of fun, creating cars out of a block of wood to race against other scouts. Eventually, I made my way to Boy Scouts where I learned more about camping including tent setting and cooking. We learned lots about first aid and we had to complete requirements to make it on to the next Boy Scout rank. We had to start completing merit badges which are different skills including first aid, camping, canoeing and more. We had to complete the different requirements for each merit badge. There are eagle required merit badges, the ones you had to complete, and non eagle required merit badges. You had to complete some non eagle required merit badges but there was a big list and you could choose from.  As you went from rank to rank, the harder the requirements were to complete. If you completed all the requirements, then you would be an Eagle Scout. That is what I am. One month before my 18^th birthday, I finally completed all the requirements. If you do not complete all the requirements before your 18^th birthday then you cannot become Eagle. The final requirement is the biggest one though is your Eagle Project. For your Eagle Project, you need to complete a project that helps out society. I chose to tear down my church’s outdoor chapel and build a new outdoor chapel. It is something that takes time, dedication, and lots of help from others. The camping trips that I went on were amazing but there were two in particular that were amazing. The first one was hiking in the mountains in Montana. It was a family outing and we went hiking on 10 mile hikes a couple thousand feet in the air. It was truly an amazing sight to see. The other trip was Seabase. Me and a couple of other scouts went down to Florida and went scuba diving. It was the first time I went scuba diving but it was something I will not forget. Throughout scouts, you learn first aid, how to camp, and do other things that are considered very important tools for life, but you also learn things that are not thought about as much. You learn to work as one, as a group, put your trust in others, and to help others when they need help. There are things in scouts you can learn other places, but there are some things you can only learn in scouts.

Camp Ramapo

Camp Ramapo was one of the greatest things I have done in my whole life. Camp Ramapo is a camp for children with special needs. It goes throughout most of the summer but it is so much fun. The first year I got declined as a camp counselor, but the second year I got accepted as a camp counselor. This camp dealt with kids with all kinds of special needs ranging from ADHD to Down syndrome. This was a camp equipped with everything including arts, swimming, gardening, sports, and a lake that had canoeing, rowing, fishing, and more fun activities. There was also hiking, high adventure, and more. If it is outdoors, you can probably find it at this camp. I was put in the TLP, teen leadership program. I worked with the teenagers and some of them were a handful. You had to remain calm under pressure when they tried to get under your skin. Some of them refused to listen and some would lash out. Even though everyone had their difficult moments, there was lots of fun and enjoyment and close connections were built. I enjoyed hanging out with all of my campers but there were two in particular that I developed a close friendship with, Chris and Eric. I was really close to them and we had lots of fun. Eric was difficult at first and did not want to respond to anyone. Eric finally decided to open up to me and we just sat and talked. Although he did have certain moments where he did not talk at all through the rest of camp, he was a lot more open after we talked. He really opened up and at the end of the session, we each have a paper and we write one good thing about each person on their paper. We end up getting a bunch of complements from each person in our tent. When I looked at my paper, I was reading it and Eric was thanking me for opening him up to the point where he could talk with other people. He said if it was not for me, he did not know if he was ever going to open up. Chris was a very energetic and fun person to hang around with, always getting involved with everything. Chris and I hit it off instantly, but the truth is I think everyone liked Chris. In the end, the friendships I made, the activities I did, and the knowledge I gained, made this one of the best summers ever.

IRUMC

Indian Run United Methodist Church is the church I go to in Dublin, Ohio. There are lots of people that are very friendly and very giving. I have done lots of volunteering there from Vacation Bible School to the Appalachian Service Project. I love volunteering and helping people because it is fun to do and gives me great joy. Vacation Bible School was my favorite thing I did. I did VBS for 6 years. VBS is a program that teaches kids about the word of Jesus and the great things he has done. I loved working with all the kids. There was story time, snack time, crafts, and game times. It was very fun and to see the kids happy made me happy. It is very hard in the end because even though it is only one week you grow a close attachment to all the kids and some kids grow a special attachment to you. I did the Appalachian Service Project for 2 years. We went down to the Appalachian area, areas that are less fortunate than us including parts of Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and lower Ohio. As a church, we went down to the Appalachian area to work on houses for the less fortunate. Its amazing how happy they are with what little they have. While we were there one year something happened that truly showed the meaning of neighborly kindness. We were down in Kentucky helping out a family and it was about 100 plus degrees. It was rough and we were going through the water pretty fast.  The neighbors of the family’s house we were helping saw we were assisting them. The neighbors came over and brought out a canopy for us to have some shade. It shows that these neighbors watch out for each other and if people are helping their neighbors and they need assistance, the neighbors will help the people assisting their neighbors if they can. I have done many other things with the church but my Eagle Scout Project was probably the best. My troop, troop 299, met at the church for our meetings and when trying to find out what to do for my project, I found out that the church needed to relocate the outdoor chapel. I decided to take on the project and I am glad I did. The church has done so much for me that I just wanted to give back. No matter what church I visit or go to in the future, Indian Run United Methodist Church will always be my favorite.