AMA #29 MVhokie69

My time as a Hokie fan began when I was 6 years old on November 6th, 1999. After, a blown 2 possession lead late in the 4th quarter in Morganhole, a scamper down the sideline and a Shayne Graham field goal later and I was hooked. I knew I wanted to play in Lane Stadium on Saturdays. At that time my family lived in rural NW Indiana. My graduating class would've been less than 70 people if I hadn't moved away and the high school had no chance of supporting a football team. Worse yet, outside of my parents who were VT alums, there wasn't college football. There was only Notre Dame... gross.

My family moved to Frederick, MD in 2005 when I was in middle School. I finally had a chance to play organized football. It could've gone worse, but I certainly didn't feel like I was going to be getting any scholarship offers either. Luckily, one of the other trumpet players in band class mentioned that his brother was in the drumline at VT. A new plan was born.

Highschool was a lot of band classes and Boy scouts. My free time largely consisted of video games, watching TV, and trying to make and fix things, especially electronics. This is a nice way of saying I broke a lot of stuff, sorry Mom. Academically I did pretty well to the point that I pretty much had my choice of what college I wanted to go to. Somehow, it came down to Larry Bird University Indiana St. and VT. When I visited Indiana St. I was treated like an absolute rock star. Had a pretty decent scholarship offer too. When I visited VT, the professor I talked to told me that I shouldn't consider Tech for an undergrad degree, but that they had good graduate programs. This is obviously not the response I was looking for. Despite this, in the end obviously I ended up choosing VT.

As you may have guessed I joined the Marching Virginians my Freshman year and continued to do so following 3 years as well. I had a blast. Met many fantastic people. I wish I had the opportunity to do it all again. I would do so in a heartbeat.

I'm not a very religious person, but I also participated at the Wesley Foundation at Virginia Tech. I made a ton of good friends there. I went on 3 spring break mission trips with them. Including one to Swan Quarter, NC where I fell in love with barbeque. I liked it so much so that I actually built a small smoker on my balcony at Foxridge. If my AMA turns into a BBQ thread I will not be upset at all.

In addition to doing community service with the Wesley Foundation I participated heavily in intramural sports there. My Junior year I was even the captain. Despite being a "church group" and most of us having the athleticism of a middle aged dad we played tough. We were competitive in games where the refs would tell us we didn't have a chance. We also had a group that liked to play disc golf. Typically with a 40 in hand while we were chucking plastic. Bro nights with beerio kart, smash bros, and/or watching The League or Blue Mountain State at my apartment were pretty common too. I didn't realize it at the time, but apparently The Wesley Foundation picked up a bit of a reputation for being "the drinking college ministry" at the time. Whoops, I did my fair share to contribute to that. Still hang out with a lot of those people at least a couple times a year. Just really good people.

Academically things didn't necessarily go quite so well. I really struggled with linear algebra at the math empo my first semester there and I quickly gave up on majoring in mechanical engineering. I decided to major in music next before quickly realizing that I hate practicing by myself. I ended up pursuing a degree in Natural Resources Conservation because pretty much everyone in CNRE seemed like a pretty cool person and it seemed like half my classes I basically got to go hang out in the woods which seemed like a pretty good deal. After four years in college, I dropped out after the 2015 spring semester 18 credits short of a degree. I was struggling with anxiety and depression and knew that I wasn't going to be able to finish my remaining classes. Knowing what I was dealing with I did the responsible thing and went to therapy got my CDL.

I got a job with US Xpress delivering refrigerated and frozen goods to walmarts and sams clubs in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan from a distribution center in Auburn, Indiana (just north of Fort Wayne). I kind of enjoyed driving tractor trailers, but the schedule was awful and worked out such that I was missing at least one night of sleep a week. In addition the dispatchers were the opposite of helpful and after a year of feeling isolated I decided that I had enough of that.

Luckily for me, my parents had just bought a house in Floyd so I moved in there while I figured out what to do with my life. I got a job at the Hardee's on Price's Fork for around 9 months before getting a job working the late shift at the CFA in Hokie Grill. I really didn't like the job, but many of the people I worked with were awesome. In addition, I figured out how to get dining services to pay for the rest of the classes that I needed to graduate. So while working 55+ hours a week I finished up my degree in the spring of '19.

I felt on top of the world for the moment and was pretty proud of myself for finishing my degree, but had a hard time finding getting interviews, and the ones I did get always seemed to tell me that "you were our second choice!" For what ever that's worth. Insert Ricky Bobby quote here. I ended up getting a job the Valvoline Instant Oil Change in Christiansburg as I had picked up a bit of a hobby working on cars over the previous 6 or 7 years. Eventually I got promoted and help open a store in Roanoke before deciding to move closer to one of my good friends from college in Bristol.

I was looking forward to getting a house, but had a number that I wanted to save up for before I made the move. Unfortunately in the final 2 months of waiting the housing market exploded. I got a job at the Mercedes dealer in Kingsport, TN and rented an apartment with my buddy. It didn't take too long to find out that the owner of the dealership didn't really believe in paying a fair wage and in fact I know that they are still paying technicians there at the same rate that they did back in 1984! That and the rate of rent rapidly increasing convinced me to go to Raleigh, where I also had some friends, but also a much bigger job market.

I now work at a Euro focused shop in Raleigh, but also turned 30 last year which caused my to really reassess what I was doing with my life and to figure out what I really wanted. I did get diagnosed with ADHD which definitely explains some of my struggles in college, but I've also decided to go back to school while I'm working to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering again now that I have a better idea of how to manage myself.

I look forward to your questions and will save you one as I would like to announce that I'm 110% committed to team pie