Story of Travis



Ok, so for the story of my life, I guess I need to start where life begins – birth. As a youth, I was very rambunctious, intrapersonal, and unique. I found fun doing just about anything – from picking 4 leaf clovers while in the outfield of my first t-ball game, to getting kicked out of the local swimming pool for fighting with the other kids. I grew up like any other kid – except I might have had just a little more energy than most. I always had to have something to do – I never let myself become bored. But I guess that this is how all kids are until they realize that counting the dots on the ceiling is pretty silly. I was born in N.C. and I grew up with the idea in mind that I might one day become a Nascar racer. Unfortunately that dream unfolded as new obstacles emerged in my life.

When I first became conscious of what I was doing and how my environment shaped my experiences, I began to notice that things in my home life just were not the way they should be. At first, it was a hunch, but as I began spending more time away from home, visiting other friends with a stable family, and discovering that parents were not suppose to fight (both in the physical and emotional sense of the word) I began to notice some problems in my life. First, I noticed that problems existed 6 days a week – the only day when problems weren’t there was on pay day, and on that day I didn’t see my parents usually. I asked myself why we were always struggling, selling things that were ours, and more importantly why daddy was throwing mommy against the wall. Before I could figure this out completely, I was taken away from home and was told that I would be getting a new set of parents. I heard that story a few more times as I passed from foster home to foster home and eventually to live with my aunt and uncle. During this period, I was angry because no one let me know what was happening, I was depressed because I had no way of contacting the family that I was originally close to, and I was scared because I had no control over what was going to happen next. Because of this experience, I learned to keep emotions restrained – it became harder and harder to become attached to the next family I was assigned to, and ultimately I learned to become independent because if you can’t have any one else to rely on, you always have yourself.

After my years of hardships, I came to live with my aunt and uncle for 2 years. It wasn’t until the end of this period that I found out that the reason I was separated from my family was because of drugs and prison – two things I vowed never to put myself at the mercy of ever. I enjoyed this time of my life a lot more than the last years because I actually found out what it was like to have friends, love, and most importantly answers. Haha, I even received my first kiss during this period of my life. Things definitely turned around, but I couldn’t help but to ask myself on occasion what my parents were doing. During this period of my life, I began to become a lot more optimistic. I told myself that things couldn’t get any worst than what I had previously went through, and that things always worked out if you outlasted your hardships. This served true because I was finally enjoying life. I have kept this optimistic attitude with me in all of my endeavors and it always stays true to me if I stay true to it.

In the summer before I turned 11, I was invited to move back in with my mom. She had evidently overcome her addiction, separated herself from my ruthless dad, and gained enough stability in her life to try and rectify her wrongs. After discovering this, I decided to live with her. When I say “I” I mean that I actually had a choice over the outcome of my life – I was asked a yes or no question and I directly influenced my future. I chose yes.

From that point until 18 when I left for college, I lived a life closer with my family, a life that fulfilled a void that was missing for years. A life that I once had – but faintly remembered, that I now could consciously experience. During this period of my life, I found one thing that I was very passionate about – that passion for personal growth, health, and success. I try to be that “all around” guy – I improve my morals, views on life, self-confidence, direction in life, body, health, and philosophies that I hold true to when I am put between a rock and a hard spot.

So now that you know the timeline of my life, I thought I would share some things that I am pretty interested in. I chose to use a video to help me with this – after all, a picture does a 1000 words so a video must do what…a million? Before you see it, let me just explain why I chose to play this video. It has many underlying meanings behind it – especially since I was partly responsible for the production, filming, directing, acting, and scripting of this movie. It is a parody of the movie 300 called High School Spartans 003 and it is about 3 new age Spartans taking on those outside of their legacy in the most legendary paper ball fight of modern day in time. We submitted it to MTV’s video spoof award and claimed 6th place in the Most Popular out of thousands of submissions. This wasn’t a project, but rather something to be remembered for as a High School Senior. It was played across the school and featured in the front page of the local newspaper. It demonstrates how absurdity brings humor, fun, and excitement to life. It demonstrates my craziness – it takes a lot to convince the principle that jumping from the ceiling is the crux of a video project that wasn’t even an assignment. It symbolizes my innate ability to bring fun out of anything – even if it was boring ole study hall. It also shows my confidence because dancing when you are in dire need of some skill learning takes some sort of intestinal fortitude. Ultimately, however, it shows my pleasure for helping to bring joy into other people’s lives. It’s hard to see where you are going when you have your head down. Ok, I’m tired of boring you with words here is the short film.

The story of my life almost parallels that of a roller coaster. It has had both its high and low points; it has been exciting, scary, and even confusing at times. However, the moments that I have been fortunate enough to have experienced along my ride have made me a stronger, confident, ambitious, optimistic and self-reliant individual. I definitely have a few more twists, twirls, and terrifying experiences to enjoy – hell I’m only about to end my freshman year in college right now, and I definitely know that I have one hell of a ride to look forward to for the rest of my life. I hope that I have helped some of you in some way – maybe I helped someone realize that things turn around or maybe I helped someone confirm their thoughts that say that I’m a weirdo – regardless, I just hope that everyone here learns after me to not dwell on anything negative that is occurring in your life. Life is too much fun to let pass by.

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