My father was one of twelve children. He was the 10th and he was the first one to go to college and he got that opportunity through a football scholarship which he turned into a PhD. So he was passionate about all of his children getting a college education. He had no preference of what we chose to study or what we chose to do as a profession but it was pretty well known that you were going to go to college.
My high school experience was a good one. As a high school athlete, I had a good time on campus. I knew a lot of people from the various sports that I played so it was a pleasant social experience.
I feel very fortunate that I had good teachers even in junior high that made me realize I had certain academic strengths. I had to work hard but I could do well in school and so that allowed me to know kind of deep inside I can achieve what I wanted to achieve. Socially you get mixed up with that, sometimes you want to spend more time with their friends so I worked hard to balance my life so I could have fun socially, work hard in academics and also complete the sports that I wanted to complete. I was like above average student in high school. I wasn't the brightest in the class, I think I worked just hard enough to get solid B+’s, a few A’s I probably could have worked harder looking back but for me that came pretty naturally if I worked hard I could get a B+ or an A. I was never a natural at English or Literature, I was always drawn to the science, the sciences due to my genuine interest in that world. So I had to work a little harder in the non-scientific classes.
When I wasn't in class in high school I spent a lot of time with my friends. I had a really good friend who was an auto mechanic and I use to love watching him performance his craft. I like to spend a lot of time in the weight room kind of year-round preparing for the sports that I participated in.
Through some hardships I learned what I wanted to do for a living. I had a great opportunity through a couple injuries and surgeries and going through physical therapy the light bulb went on. I want to be a physical therapist or an orthopaedic surgeon and as it turned out I became a physical therapist.