Ah yes. Unnamed's life story. A tale to behold.
Nah, it's long, but I won't even lie that my life has been pretty exceptional:
It all started in Rhode Island, November 24th, 1996. I don't really remember much there. I was born and had an older sister and an older brother. My entire time in Rhode Island, I wasn't very conscious, so I can't recall much save a few snapshots of the house and my room. While I was a baby in Rhode Island, I did break my arm though. I jumped out of my high chair one night and cried it off. Later that night, I decided to jump out of my crib, subsequently landing on the same arm. Needless to say, it broke.
That's me at my grandfather's 70th birthday with my cast. The previous year, his wife (my grandmother) had died of lung cancer as she was quite the heavy smoker. Also, on that side of the family, my aunt had died about two years before I was born due to liver failure.
Anyways, fast track three years and my dad got a job with APC in Paris, France. Packed our bags and off I went. Within weeks, me, and my older siblings could all speak French like natives. I was thrust into pre-school, but quickly became friends with this other kid from D.C., who could sympathize with me (as we attended a French speaking school). Here's a picture of us on a field trip to an art museum, he was wearing the orange vest:
Anyways, I picked up Judo while I lived there, but needless to say, I was never very good at it. Matter-o-fact, no one in our family was very athletic as a kid. Talking about kids, my mother had just given birth to the last edition of the family: another girl:
By this time, I was about 5 years old. But as soon as we got to Paris, we left. After two and a half years, my dad got another job. This time at a company in Henrico Virginia.
One thing to keep in mind: All of my relatives on my mom's side live about one square mile from eachother in New Jersey and all the relatives on my dad's side grew up and lived in the North East (which is why I've always been a Pats fan).
So, we get to Virginia, and I start school in Kindergarten there. This is where the fun started during my childhood. I am fortunate enough to have been raised by regular middle class folk, I had the opportunity to travel throughout the world. And by world, I mean Europe... When we lived in Paris, I went to some places like Dublin and Cairo, which needless to say, was amazing. In Virginia, we would usually spend our Spring Break someplace in Europe with one or two exceptions:
Here I was on a cruise throughout the Caribbean :
Venice, Italy:
Ireland again:
My parents always preferred Guinness anyways...
Anyways, we went a couple of other places. But Virginia was extremely fun. It is and will be the longest I've ever lived in one place during my childhood. Stayed there K-5. Unlike most kids, I just played soccer all six years and wasn't too shabby at all. There, I was a fairly quiet kid though. Wore glasses and was pretty good at school (but that's not saying much in elementary school). Wasn't the most athletic, but I was tremendously fast. Virginia also let us see family much more often too. However, we did receive news that my great-grandfather passed away on my dad's side, which was a pretty big blow to both my dad and mom. Another notable thing was that we got our first (and eventually only) dog, a flat coat retriever named Finnegan:
Before getting him, I was scared shitless of dogs, but within the two years we had him, I really grew to love them (still hat rat dogs though). Anyways, during fifth grade, my dad broke the news that we were moving again. By now, moving had been pretty damn easy for me, as I've always been interested in seeing new places. Our new destination was Amsterdam, Netherlands. We ended up living in an apartment above the store Diesel, on P.C. Hooftsraat. Pretty much the equivalent of living on 5th Avenue in New York or Newbury Street in Boston. Luckily, the company helped pay for housing!
From there, I attended the International School of Amsterdam. The two years in Amsterdam I consider were the two that shaped me into who I am really. I played for the soccer team there as we got in thrid place at the NECIS tournament (North Eastern Conference of International Schools), loosing to Luxembourg in the semis. Oh and did I mention almost everyone at my school was a millionaire? Most kids were loaded out of their minds, but some, like myself had their companies pay for tuition. I'll get back to that later though. I also ended up doing track in 6th and 7th grades there. I was seeded #1 in the 100m race that year. However, I tripped and was the only person to not qualify. I ended up getting to the finals in the 200m though and our 4x100m team clinched silver. Aside from athletics, this is when I first got my first girlfriend, who I was with until I moved later.
Now that we were back in Europe, we could travel a shitload some more. We ended up taking day trips or weekend trips to Paris or Germany, and one of my favorites, Prague:
That is one thing I loved about living in Amsterdam. Our teams played other countries and I used to take field trips to places like Brussels, Belgium or Hamburg, Germany to even Copenhagen in Denmark. Needless to say, this is when my life started to open up I think. Remember how I mentioned millionaire friends? Ends up I became best friends with the Founders of TomTom's son (they ended up being billionaires though). I also became good friends with the owner of Ikea West's daughter (who was smoking hot too), one of the head of Nike Europe's sons, and the son of a Dutch mafia crew. Anyways, I ended up taking long weekend trips to the TomTom kid's French estate in his private jet. Seems insane, especially when I look back on it now.
Anyways, two years after we got there, we were gone... And poof. I showed up back to where I started from: New England. We moved to a small middle class, white town in Massachusetts, when I was in 8th grade. And just like always, I managed to fit in extremely well (amen for that personality trait). Here, I began to experience the classic American teenager's life. I ended up picking up football in 8th grade. I actually became the captain, which isn't bad for it being my first time playing football. I played cornerback and running back. I was #24, my lucky number:
I never ended up playing RB very often though as I always liked defense better. Eventually in freshman year, I tore two ligaments in my foot, which pretty much botched the rest of the season for me. Then the podiatrist recommended not to play contact sports and my two years of football were over. However, I am considering a senior year shot at slot. During freshman year I also took up track, running the 100m and the 4x100m. I didn't trip this time. During the offseason, I lifted too since I did javelin and ran a shitload. Also during sophmore year, I had the opportunity to work at Dunkin' Donuts because my older sister got a job there. And well that is history. With the money, I ended up buying a 1995 Ford F150 with just 30,000 miles on it
Now, in Junior year, I am living a pretty good life. Have a 3.86 GPA, friends, go to parties, have a steady source of income and am generally happy. I've realized that it's the way you perceive bad things that makes you unhappy or not. Unlike my older sister who took moving so many times horribly, I learned how to adapt fairly well. My whole life so far had been a pretty damn interesting journey and looking back, I took a lot for granted. Nonetheless, I thought it was just an interesting run. And now that I'm looking at colleges I will have to write a completely new chapter.
