Artifacts

Unifying Passtime

This one might seem a little silly, but bear with me. Disc golf was a family activity when I was growing up; the perfect way to get the whole family outside and active on a beautiful lazy afternoon. The youngest of three by several years, the time and opportunities available to me for spending time with my siblings was limited because of their busy schedules. Some of the fondest memories from my childhood involve getting overly competitive with my brother, finding lost discs and boastfully adding them to my collection, running like mad through the forest after my dad’s lengthy throws, and enjoying the great outdoors with my closest companions.

My sister now lives in Chicago and my parents are an ocean away, leaving my brother and I on our own in Columbus. I’m fully convinced that disc golf has been the overriding reason why we’ve stuck so firmly together, playing almost everyday during the summer and once or twice a week otherwise. It’s the reason I have a support system that has helped me in inexplicable ways during this crazy college ride.

Beyond bringing me closer to my family, disc golf has also enabled me to build genuine relationships with my fellow Buckeyes. I say ‘genuine’ not because I only form meaningful friendships with people who play disc golf, but because when we play we put our phones away, ignore social media, and enjoy the moments we’re spending together. During my freshman year and the summer that followed I introduced innumerable people to disc golf and I’ve found immense joy in not only watching them develop a new set of skills and gain confidence in them, but interact personally and meaningfully with others and myself.

The seasoned yellow disc below is one that I’ve had for over 10 years. Its one of my most cherished possessions and I have no plans of retiring it any time soon.

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Passionate Ink

tattoo

When people ask me about the outline of Africa tattooed on my wrist I actually find it extremely difficult to answer. I have so much to say that boiling it down into one concise response is nearly impossible. I got the tattoo during the beginning of my freshman year at OSU so that the images of living in Angola and working with the most incredible animals in Africa would still be fresh in my memory.

Towards the end of my sophomore year of high school my parents sat me down at the kitchen table and half-jokingly asked if I was interested in moving to Luanda. I had never heard of the place but they explained it to be the capital of Angola, a highly overpopulated city on the oil rich coast of the Atlantic ( my dad is an engineer for BP). Having never traveled further than Canada, I saw this opportunity as the adventure of a lifetime and gave my parents a confident ‘let’s do it’. We made the painstakingly complicated move early that summer and I carried out the remainder of my high school years in Africa.

I was thrust into a completely different culture and lifestyle and entered a junior class of just twenty students from all different countries at the Luanda International School. The next two and a half years consisted of clawing my way through the absurdly demanding diploma program while also being able to explore places in the world I had never dreamed of seeing. Breaking out of the bubble that was my small suburban town of Toledo and discovering a world of new cultures, tastes, music, ideas, and perspectives broadened my way of thinking and extended the reaches of my goals immensely.

Nothing has ever influenced my goals to the extent that working with African species has. Growing up I had always known I would work with wildlife, but I never could have imagined being french kissed by a lion or bottle-feeding a baby vervet monkey in a diaper. These experiences are among the happiest of my life, and I’ve been inspired to work towards a career in which I can fight to conserve and protect these invaluable species.

george lion-kiss

My family, including my best and furriest friend Beanie, still live in Luanda and will for another three years. I will luckily be able to visit them once or twice a year and continue to volunteer at conservation projects and wildlife sanctuaries throughout Africa.

I would not be the person I am today if I had closed the door on such an opportunity. With a mind open to the world for everything it can teach me, I go and say, “Thank you Africa, I’ll be back as soon as I can”.

 

Artifacts

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation is a reflective description of the artifact that attempts to communicate its significance.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]