I grew up in the capital city of Michigan, Lansing. It was your typical midwestern city in the US. The city thrived off of the automotive industry, insurance companies, and Michigan State University.
At the time, I was the third oldest out of 7 kids. I was adjusting to a new life in a sense, as my mom died a few years prior to that. My mom left my dad with five kids, and my dad remarried and blessed us with two more awesome siblings. While most people would’ve found our situation to be awkward, we embraced it. We all didn’t look the same, but we loved each other like we were born out of the same womb.
The world was a different place back in the day. When I was younger, I enjoyed playing soccer, hanging out with my cousins/friends, singing, breakdancing, and riding my bike. There was just something amazing about getting on my bike, cruising the neighborhood, and riding away. I guess you can say that was my form of traveling at a young age.
Looking back at things, I never realized how much of an impact a place called Mt. Vernon would have on my life. Mt. Vernon was a townhome community where I made lifelong friends, got into trouble, but had some of the best experiences of my childhood. While there’s no specific event that I can point out, the experience of growing up there taught me so much about life and some of the things I would eventually have to tackle.
Currently, I reside in the awesome city of Austin, Texas. I live there with my wife of many great years, two beautiful kids, two joyful dogs, and my two young yet ambitious siblings. I’m the head of Employer Brand at a little cloud data management company called, Informatica.
So if I were to impart lessons to my 13-year-old self they would be: