My Introduction

From Mizzou Wiki

Greetings fellow classmates! Moved to Columbia,MO. over a year ago from Arizona. Although I have lived in many places in these United States I am a Missouri native. I was born in Joplin, MO. back in 1962! It seems difficult being a student again because I am most likely the oldest member of the class including the professor. I have lived an interesting life so far, I hope to be around another 45 years. I served in the military after high school during the Reagan years. (I like to feel I helped defeat Communist Russia.) Served as a Hospital Corpsman with the First Marine Division almost four years. I challenged the California State Board of Nursing exam and recieved my LVN license in 1984. I hired on with the Veterans Affairs in 1985 and have been taking care of America's Vets ever since. Looking forward to retirement in about nine years. So what am I doing here? Well after some personal set-backs with a divorce many years ago and assisting in the terminal care of my parents, I can finally finish my BSN. (I may be one of the oldest sophmore transfer students around campus.) I attempted one career change about nine years ago and took flight training until the tragedy surrounding the events of 9-11 disrupted the commercial airline industry not to mention the livelyhood of our entire nation. I love to fly and have over 260 hours in five types of aircraft.

I have four biological children and two step-children. Ages 9,10,14,18,19 and 20. The older two are attending college, one here in Columbia and the other in Arizona. My wife is also a nurse and we work opposite so one of us is always home. I work 36 hours a week on a busy Surgical/Medical floor. When I am not working, going to school, taking care of the kids or house I actively partake in flying, hunting/shooting/reloading, golfing, camping, fishing, SCUBA, biking the Katy trail, carpentry, learning to play bass guitar, motorcycle touring the state, reading/collecting/selling books and working on family geneology. Life is short, so if you don't get out and do something, it will pass you by quickly. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Looking forward to learning in this class.