Life Stories

What the hell, I’ll bite:

I was born on the Ides of March of 1972, Richard Nixon was president.  Watergate was still a few months from becoming a public scandal, not that I cared, I was mostly concerned with boobies, some things don’t change.

My parents would have both still been in High School if they hadn’t dropped out already.  My dad worked at a gas station and my mother still lived at home.  They weren’t old enough to get married and when they did eventually marry they had to have parental permission.

My Parents divorced when I was five and my younger brother was three.  I stayed with my father, who remarried shortly after and I gained a stepmother and stepsister.  I lost touch with my mother for about fifteen years.  My father had two more sons with my stepmother.

When I was about eight, we hit the big time.  My dad got a job making $8/hour.  It was around this time I started to realize that we were poor.  Life is a bit rough for a family of seven with and income less than 20k even in the 80s.

I joined the National Guard and started college after High School.  I was paying my own way so it was a delicate balancing act with Job, College and Partying.  Not necessarily in that order of priority.  I moved in with a buddy from school, we’re are still friends and still play Axis and Allies.

I met my wife and got married a year later in 1996.  Being married wasn’t easy and I don’t think it ever will be.  I took in my oldest half brothers son when he was 2 months old in 1999 and found out a month later that my wife was pregnant.  So in the space of a year I went from half of a young married couple to head of my own family.  I officially adopted my son last month, he is seven now, and my daughter is six.

I have worked as Computer aided draftsman, designing fire sprinkler systems for about 8 years.  In 1994 I got the “opportunity” to visit Mesopotamia for a year.  It may seem like a terrible thing, but over all I think it was a positive experience.  I got first hand experience of what is going on in the Middle East and was able to visit Great Britain for a couple weeks.

I’ve been back now for a few months and things are getting back to normal, other than the fact that my wife is pregnant again, I am considering a career change, looking to buy a new house, and dealing with the very real possibility of another deployment in the near future.  In other words I’m pushing through the chaos that surrounds me, situation normal.

I don’t know which president was in office when I was born.

Based on your story, it would have been Eisenhower.  Unless, of course, you spent a whole lot of years in Grade 3.  :wink:

SS

Eh what the heck…

Born a few months before Apollo 11 in central PA.  First political memory is the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Was an avid hiker/climber/bike rider in my youth and through my teens.  I was both a jock (football, Left Offensive Guard), and a nerd (Speech Team, Model Legislature, Concert Band).  I served 5 years in the Pennsylvania Youth Senate, my last year as President Pro Tem.  PA delegate to the YMCA Youth Conference on National Affairs.

I was sitting in my junior year Physics class when we got word that Challenger had exploded.

My father, who served on the local school board from the year before I was born, gave both my sister and I our diplomas.

I was one of two graduates from my high school to be tapped by the Military Academies the year I graduated.  Out of 49 kids, one was boud for West Point, one for Colorado Springs (we were the first ever selected from my alma matter).

After ripping up my knees up in Jack’s Valley, I washed out of the Academy.  After patching them back together, I enrolled in college and joined the PA National Guard.  While in training, I ripped my knees up again, and was transfered to the Regular Army when my Med Board was in progress and my duty station could not be changed, and Pennsylvania stopped paying for me.  Back to college after my third discharge (USAF, PAARNG, USA).  Ran for State Assembly in 1994 (62nd District), lost in the primaries to a hand picked State Republican Committee candidate, who lost the general election and did not even get half the republicans to vote for him).  Became a manager at my “McJob”.

Moved out of PA when my wife took a teaching job in NC.  Went through hell when our religion hit the press in early 2000.  Divorced a few years later, many years after that marriage had ended in all but name (nearly a third of my sexual partners were during the 8 years of that marriage).

Met my current wife while I was dirt poor and could barely afford the mortgage on my termite infested farm.  But my divorce had stopped the financial bleeding, and now 4 1/2 years later we have relocated to Raleigh after I was promoted several times and are doing rather well for ourselves.

Along the way I helped create 2 fetuses that were aborted.  I was a slut, I was a whore (paid for much of my college that way since the DOD dropped me… I had signed up for Student Loan Repayment option, 20% of my outstanding loans for each year of service.  And that was all I received… discharged just before payment #2 was to be made…).  I lost my virginity at 11 and have had more than 50 sexual partners in my life.  Somehow, the worst I ever got was a case of crabs when I was a freshman in high school…

Turned my back on organized Christian Religion at 20 following my 3rd pass through Lutheran Cathecism (those darn Young Earth folks in the Missouri Synod are just NUTS!).  At 29 I went from Agnostic to Pagan.  By 33 I had become non-practicing Pagan (meaning I have cut myself off from the BS of the Pagan Community, but still hold the religion in my being).

I drink… HEAVILLY.  And I will likely die early from either liver damage caused by a combination of work exposure to industrial solvents and alcohol, or from cancer since I also smoke a carton a week (and have since I was 19) or from some other chemical exposure as a result of my career of trying to keep hazardous chemicals from being illegally released to the environment.

With more than half of my life behind me… it has been a hell of a ride.

I was created on Cylon. After receiving my third IL series Brain, I was declared supreme ruler of the Cylon Empire. After exterminating the Humans and the 12 colonies of man, I dispatched Baltar and a Cylon task forces to hunt and vanquish the balance of the human race. We finally found earth and destroyed Adama’s fleet but decided to turn the Earth into a museum as a supreme token of contempt for the wretched human misery that prevails here.

That is why your here…

And BTW we some among you in human form. These centurians perform as curators of the “Earth-Cylon Comedy Museum” to make sure you continue to amuse us.

@Jennifer:

I was born at 3:44 AM on April 20th, 1977 in the Russian town (now Ukraine) of BOIARKA and was raised on a street named YURKIVSKA.  BOIARKA is just outside of KYIV (Keiv) and would be considered a suburb.  Many of the factory laborers lived in BOIARKA and travelled the short distance to KYIV either by bus or by foot, depending on the time of year and the resources available at the time.

My father worked at the plant as a day laborer.  He also worked on the side as a “dentist.”  Now, it should be mentioned that a dentist in Russia was not a medical profession as it is here in the United States of America.  Dentists happened to be whomever had the tools, which resulted in a lot of inheretted dentists with little or no skill at all.  My father was one of these dentists with no skills.

My mother worked late at night.  She would not tell my brother or I what she did, but I can make infrences based on the times she worked, old photos of her and other evidence and will do so.  I believe she worked in the oldest profession in the world and did so to earn the little extra money we needed so my brother and I could eat, have a roof over our heads, be warm, be dressed and have medical attention when needed.

I remember as a child being called to dinner by my mother.  My brother, Peter, and I would come down to the ground floor of the shack we lived in and would be given a choice, most nights, of what to eat.  We would take turns chosing our dinner, should we eat the banana or the apple?  Or maybe the choice was the buttered bread or the greasy hunk of meat (which was always more grease then meat!)

Anyway, I digress.  The home was actually pretty nice, considering our family status in the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics.  We had two floors, the top floor had two rooms and the bottom floor had a stove with a long pipe on top, a table with 4 chairs (none of which matched) and curtains on the windows (which half were wax paper) that reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of 1920’s American fashion.

As a child we were always told that America was worse off.  They lived in caves and chanted to their gods.  But that American military might, along with Western Europe was perched on our doorstep and might invade any day.  We all knew that NATO would not nuke us, because they wanted our women for sex slaves and our farmlands to feed their impoverished masses.

Of course, when the iron curtain fell in 1991 due to the leadership of the insane cowboy, Ronald Reagan and his minion, George Bush Sr. we were introduced to a whole new world.

In 1991 my family moved from Russia to the United States.  My father died before finding work in this country, my Mother ended up having to accept government hand outs, despite her demands not too because she was too sick to find permanent employment, rellying on the generosity of churches, house cleaning work and the government to get by.

My Brother went back to Europe with his American wife and currently lives in Denmark.

I enlisted into the United States Air Force and used government programs to earn an associates degree in 1996, an associates degree in 2006, a bachelor’s degree in 1998, a bachelor’s degree in 2003 and two master’s degrees in 2002. (Yes, that is not chronological order, it’s in order of importance.)  Meanwhile, I opened a business installing cabling and fixing technology which took off, so after my first tour of duty was completed (3 years AFROTC cadet, 4 Years Air Force Officer) I left hte service to make a go of it in the private industry.

September 11th did massive damage to my business, however and in 2005 I decided enough was enough, profits were at all time lows, a major contractor had jilted us on pay, I had to fire almost my entire staff, so I sold the firm to CompUSA - who paid more then it was worth, in my opinion, and re-enlisted but in the US Army this time.

I had to spend 6 weeks in Army Basic Combat Training for Officers at Fort Benning, GA which was akin to camping and hiking and basically having fun while you learned the Army way of life for those officers comming from other branches and then I was off to New Orleans for 4 weeks and then Iraq.

I spent 3 Months, 2 Days in Iraq before I was blown off the top of a building (roughly 18-20 feet) and shattered 3 vertebrea, did damage to the thecal sack and have a permanent bulging disk.  However, on the plus side, I proved the doctors at the Socialist medical center wrong, I was not stuck in a wheel chair for the rest of my life, because I am currently able - with pain - to limp around on a cane.  A vast improvement seeings as it’s a pain to get into and out of a wheelchair so you can drive yourself!

I am now on Chapter 31, which is a government program for broken soldiers to retrain them to enter the private working world again, but in a new career field.

In August 2006, I received “emergency” certification to be a teacher of secondary education in the field of mathematics for the Chicago Public Schools while I attend Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Chicago (simultaniously) to earn my full time certifications.

I am planning to take the Illinois Basic Skills Test which will give me my probationary certification this summer, so wish me luck!

Do you have an accent?

@Scarface:

Just let us know when you lost your virginity & elaborate on that experience.

lol

I know you’ve mentioned this earlier, but if its not too much to ask, indulge me for a moment- what were the degrees in?

Good luck Jennifer

I was born on Brooklyn in 1987. My mother is Greek and my father is Chilean, so naturally I learned Spanish as I was growing up O_o. I know some Greek. I spent most of my childhood visiting Chile and learning about their culture and stuff. I got interested in politics when I learned that my father was a political prisoner on the Pinochet era.
I was in a school across the river from WTC, when the planes hit. Didn’t see the fire, but I did see a lot of smoke, dust and burning papers falling by.
I also love soccer, been playing it for 16 years (since I was four). Lately just been going to college (Planning to become a nurse… for now). I hate the recruiters harassing me on the subway stations and calling my house on a regular basis (dunno where  they got my number from).
Thats basically it.

This Marine has no desire to share his life story with the folks of cyberspace. This Marine was manufactured at Parris Island. That is all yall need to know.

Hey what happend to the third person speak?

This M36 has no desire to share his life story with the folks of cyberspace. This M36 was manufactured at Parris Island. That is all yall need to know.

Well there are a few exceptions. :wink: I was quite the trouble maker before I joined the Corp. Ah, the good old days… 8-)

@Jennifer:

Yes, it’s eastern european/russian kinda. More Russian then eastern european, but it’s not as heavy as a full muscovite’s russian accent.

Wow, now I have to try to read your posts with an accent, some how in my mind you sound like Pavel Chekov now…