Where and when is THE beginning?

It would be so much easier to write this as the typical college coming of age tale. It also would have been easier to never set out on this journey, but as you’ll come to learn in the pages that will follow I don’t do what comes easy. In fact I’ve made an art form out of navigating into and out of difficult situations. As a kid I swung from palm trees, raced down steep hills on roller blades with no brakes and jumped off roofs into swimming pools and that need to cheat danger is still deep within me.

At 17 I very suddenly decided that the palm trees, swimming pools, endless blue Pacific Ocean and seemingly perfect upbringing I had in Southern California was boring. By 18 I had convinced myself that Falcon was more than my name. It was the essence of my soul and I needed to fly. Remember the part about easy? I don’t do easy. Easy would have been moving from Los Angeles to any other large metropolitan area in The United States. I had to go to Columbus, Ohio and what follows is my account of the six years I lived in the middle of a Midwestern State.

The most difficult aspect of writing this is quite simply where to begin. Every story has a beginning and an ending. There may be sequels and prequels but each story arc must begin and end before the next can continue the story. I can't say what the future holds for me nor am I certain of where and when it will begin. I can only cover where I've been. What I want to give to you as a reader is information that will help you better understand why I did the things I did and that in some cases it is possible for certain things to just happen whether we intend for them to or not. It’s not an excuse I seek in explaining the hows and whys. Rather, I’d truly like for you to see that anything can happen to anyone and that when these events take place they can be as amazing as your mentors say and as terrible as your elders warn.

The 17th year is the best place to start. It was a year filled with a lot more personal tragedy than I had ever experienced. I choose not to go into detail regarding these events but it must be known that they have had a most profound impact on the person I was then and who I am today.

Physically I grew up in Los Angeles and when I understand what I mean by stating that I’ll be the first to let you know. I took advantage of as many of the opportunities growing up in this melting pot of a city as my budget would allow. I was sheltered in the way many are when they are raised in such a large city. I knew little of the world that existed outside of the county lines. Why would I? Isn’t everything you could ever want or need within those borders? The growing up that is often considered most important in adolescent life occurred not in L.A. but in the Midwest. I was eager to leave Los Angeles and explore the world that was outside the county lines and so I began to look for life and so forth outside of the Los Angeles. Deciding to leave after high school was easy. Deciding on where to move proved to be much more difficult.

Fact. All of life’s decisions depend on its level of too. It’s either too much or too cheap to buy. He/She is too boring, too nice, too skinny, too fat, etc. to date. The biggest difference in what you do and do not do is the too. I was no different in selecting a university to attend.

Boston College appealed to me. Boston was liberal, much like L.A., had four seasons unlike L.A., and was home to history and great sports teams. Unfortunately by the time I discovered the joys of attending university in that city I was too late. The application deadline had passed. Georgetown? Attend a great university in the nation's capital? Great minds, powerful people, and a plethora of opportunities are the normal. In the end it had one too many too’s. Too expensive and I fear far too exclusive for my 3.7 grade point average. New York? It was far away from Los Angeles and very different from my hometown. No, couldn’t go there either. This time the too came from me. I was too Californian for such a place.

At this point I was months into the college application process and had only been accepted to one out of state university. It was a large university in the Midwest where I had some family but it didn't exactly scream "Good times are ahead! Please study here!" I couldn't be picky at this point and a scholarship was within reach so in the end, as all my other options had been whittled away, Ohio was my final destination/decision. Ohio wasn’t too much of any one thing. It always comes down to the too’s. How else would a kid who grew up in Los Angeles, arguably one of the most interesting if not intriguing and outrageous cities in the world wind up in Ohio?