Where should I start, everyday for many years is a lot to talk about.
My roots are from Tacoma and Gig Harbor, WA. I was born at home with just my parents and a midwife. I was raised as a Buddhist which I am just now starting to truly understand my great fortune. I have an older brother Shaun Austin, RIP. I have a little sister named Gwen. I have attended many daycares and day camps throughout my life and have met many people who I think of as friends. I have not talked to most in many, many years but I hope all of them are living their dreams.
Schools I attended:
Fawcett Elementary – K;
Gig Harbor Heights Elementary – K thru 2;
Downing Elementary – 3;
Seward Elementary – 4 thru 5;
Stewart Middle School – 6 thru 8;
Henry Foss High School – 9 thru 12 C/O 99;
Central Washington University – 2003 thru 2007;
I know where some of my friends and classmates went but many I have lost in time. The love of music and the stage has led me to many great things and people in school learning instruments, trumpet, Violin, Viola, Saxophone, and many other instruments. The only memory I have of most of my past is my memory. It is hard to remember names but faces I can, but that was many years ago. Most faces today have changed from the innocence of childhood. Where has the time gone? I will always be grateful and thankful for everyone who was in my life, girlfriends, teachers, friends, classmates, bus drivers, cafeteria staff, counselors, principles, vice principals, crushes, hall monitors, bullies, and the list could go on forever. Without everyone in my life playing their part I would not be the person I am today, thank you.
After high school I needed escape and room to grow. I joined the navy on a whim because they offered me the best deal for my future. My dream was to go to college and they gave me a lot of money for my dream. It just took four years out of my life as an indentured servant. I did not like people always telling how to live my life and did not like the navy. It was a very negative place that lived living on a ship is not that much fun. Leaving all my family and friends behind, escaping the life I lived, without telling anyone. Toby disappeared on to his sea of suffering. It took me to great mistakes, well that is what we call the place navy trains its sailors. It started out hot as hell, and turned as cold as space, and the misery it created was tenfold. It then sent me to San Diego, a paradise, which I was to blind to see by my misery. In the four years that I was there I grew up, going through the trials of love, life and no liberty. I wanted to give up many times and had some of my darkest moments. When I was down at my darkest moment, there always seemed to be a light shinning bright in the form of a woman. A temptress to help me see things in a different light, guiding me to areas in my life of uncharted realms, giving me hopes to live a better life. The bittersweet moments good and bad, shared and felt will never be forgotten, but forgiven. I was down to a year left in the navy when I meet a wonderful woman. She was everything that I was not and so much more I feel in love with her the moment my eyes touched her, and I knew I could marry her someday.
After the navy I went to college, YAY, I made it, living my dream. I knew what I wanted to do and had direction and a goal. I had a woman to get back to. She lived in San Diego and I was in Washington going to school. The temptations of all the young beautiful women was a hard struggle that I battled every day, especially after being in the navy on a all male ship. The only thing I wanted was to be with her and her name is Lindsay. I met many great people and know that they will someday do great things and I hope that I can help them when the time comes. I battled through math and a ton of computer science classes to get a bachelors degree in computer science. While I was in my sophomore year my brother committed suicide, which rocked my world to the core. If it wasn’t for the woman of my dreams I would have been lost in a nightmare. It took many years of suffering to overcome that chapter in my life.
I graduated and moved down to where my future wife lived, back to San Diego. I got a job testing video games and mobile applications on cell phones. A job landed in my lap that I currently have which is working with the navy. Crazy, I never thought in my life that would happen again. I got married on July 12, 2008 almost the same age I planned. It was a wedding from a dream, a fairytale, minus the elephants that I wanted. My honeymoon was fantastic, and if it was not for plastic it would have never come true. Thank you credit card companies, you help my dream come true. We went to Sandals, an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean on an island called Antigua.
The year 2009 was one of the craziest years for me personally. I almost died that year, my heart stopped and I fell to ground to die. My faith is what kept me alive and my unfinished mission. Not long after I got my Gohonzon, which is a scroll that in Buddhism we chant to change our karma for ourselves and our love ones. We then got a call from our landlord telling us that we needed to move because she had to sell the place. We moved in with my wife’s parents to save some money and start looking for a house to buy. My wife’s mother has been battling cancer for 3 years, and every time she thought she had it beat it would come back stronger. We stayed their helping out looking for a house but I was not in any hurry, and told her mom when she gets better we will move. She was diagnosed with brain cancer in August and died a month later. A day after my birthday, she died on September 12, 2009. I will always remember Mary Claseman, and will take care of her daughter. Even though through all this turmoil I have been able to stand strong a weather a great storm, I look forward to 2010.
2010 will be a great year because I am going fight my hardest for my dreams to come true. I want to change the world that you live in, and give you strength to accomplish your dreams and find happiness. So let us do this together.
