Comments:
After Sabino, I attended the University of Arizona, starting in August '99 and graduating in May 2004 (after a semester break in Spring '03) with a degree in Political Science.
During my time at UA, I became a pro-Israel activist, going on several trips to Israel, and helping found a pro-Israel organization on campus. This Jewish communal involvement also led to my joining the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity in 2002, which profoundly impacted my life in a number of ways. And ultimately, my Zionism, activism & an unceasing sense of adventure led me - two months after graduating from UA - to Jerusalem, Israel, in July '04, where I automatically gained Israeli citizenship and lived for just shy of 2.5 years.
I spent most of my time in Israel commuting between the ruins of Jerusalem and the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv each Sunday~Thursday (the Israeli workweek), making friends from every hemisphere, hearing suicide bombings, dating and briefly getting engaged to a Frenchwoman, exploring nooks and crannies in the Old City of Jerusalem, traveling to France, Egypt and Austria...and refusing a free plane ticket home (from my Mom) from Israel during the Second Lebanon War in July/August 2006. Of course, that's just the short version of events... ;-)
Feeling restless and stagnant - a wholly internal malady - in the Jewish State at that point in my life, I decided to return to America in Spring '06, finally actually doing so only in mid-November of that year - going first to New York City (during which time I worked in New Jersey at a news website) and then briefly staying in the DC area nine months later, and finally moving back to Arizona in mid-November '07. The return to Arizona I decided upon while on a Greyhound bus from Washington, DC to NYC, where I was headed (I thought) to live again. But early the next day, I was instead on a JetBlue flight to Phoenix, where my best friend Chris Wargo picked me up.
My Dad and Stepmom were touring China at the time - imagine their surprise (and momentary chagrin!) to see me at the airport with my Grandma Sis upon their return!
After a too-short stay in Flagstaff that November '07, I went to Tucson, my hometown...and then, in May '08, went back up to Flagstaff to spend some much-needed and valued time with my aforementioned best friend, Chris Wargo. If a man is to be judged by God and his peers by the company he keeps, then I can count myself pretty damn lucky and grateful for Chris's friendship - more like, brotherhood - over the years. It's difficult to quantify the profoundly positive influence he's had on my life. Thank you, dude.
By the way, if anyone ever needs/desires any briefings on how irresponsible I can be, well...I won't boast. I'll be humble, and I'll direct you to Chris!
Less than a year after returning to my native Arizona, I not-so-suddenly found myself in Daegu, South Korea, on October 30, 2008, basically falling into a role I never imagined taking up - that of an English teacher to Korean children. Since then, I've been working alongside and/or befriending a bevy of South Africans, Canadians and Koreans...and loving (almost) every minute of it!
It's partly Chris's fault, to tell you the truth, as he invited me to teach with him at an ESL camp held for Korean kids in Sedona in Summer '08...run by the school which eventually brought me to Korea on a year-long contract. I'm incredibly grateful that he did this, though, as I've changed more for the better during this year in South Korea than I did during the several years I spent in Israel - or, if not "more", then it's certainly of a higher, more discernible quality of change.
And plus, it's given me some opportunities to visit Japan, spending several days touring Kyoto during one trip in August '09, and then exploring Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Nagasaki for a few days during another trip in September '09 (which came about surprisingly, when one of my school's students came down with swine flu...and we teachers had surprise vacation time on our hands).
Anyway, with my current contract expiring at the end of October '09, I'm looking forward to spending a month or two in the States before returning to Korea for a second stint as an English teacher...likely in Seoul, maybe elsewhere if that's the case. Heck, I'll even go to Japan, if that's where the next teaching job is to be found (there are plenty, plenty out there, in any case). All in all, life is pretty good for me right now, and I have an abundance of reasons to thank God each and every day for that.
