Geez, where to start...this will probably end up very long...
Well, I'm 25 and the youngest of four brothers. My mother has always been an outgoing person, gardener, and biology nut and has her Masters in Microbiology and is currently working in a lab working on a cure for the degenerative eye disease, Retinitis pigmentosa...ironic huh. My father just retired from being an electrical engineer (PE) and has his Masters in Electrical Engineering and has always been an insanely intelligent math/logical person who keeps very much to himself. I ended up a mix of the two, and the only one of my brothers with any interest in biology.
I grew up and still live in Springboro, Ohio which is basically a large suburb between Dayton and Cincinnati. Since I can remember I've always preferred to be entertained by nature and spent my early years exploring the woods and creeks near my house. I've always had pets and plants, and a mom who was very supportive of any passing interest. I learned to read before I can remember so that I could identify the bugs/fish/plants I found on my adventures. My teachers all thought I had reading problems because I failed every book test on the beginner books because I didn't bother reading them(bah, fiction) until my mom showed them an example of my reading latin plant and animal names. I still avoid fiction to this day.
When I was about six I took an interest in her couple houseplants, so she took me to the local nursery to find my own houseplants and then to the book store to find some books. After about a year, the window in my bedroom was a jungle of houseplants and slowly died of neglect when my new hobby of tropical fish took hold. Before that happened, I had gotten a book on orchids...my one desire that would not come to be since I couldn't find them anywhere for sale. Well, the next year tropical fish and frogs and other small critters were my preferred hobby and after another year or two there were no houseplants to be found in my room, but instead about six 10 gallon tanks, a 20 gallon tank of cichlids, a 29 gallon tank for my Oscar, and a 55 gallon tank for my beloved pet large mouth bass. I slowly got out of those hobbies too, and slowly back into plants but not as intensely.
When I hit about 14 or 15 years old, I had found that old book on orchids, and on the last page was a picture of Psychopsis papillio. My mom said she worked with a guy in the lab that grew orchids and asked him if he could find me one. Sure enough, a month later I had the most interesting plant my eyes had ever seen...and it wasn't even in bloom. We went to the local orchid society meeting the same month and it was over for me when the Psychopsis bloomed the next month. The orchids started to pile in along with books on them, then the internet got big and info was everywhere. Since then I've had an unsatiable thirst for orchids and knowledge on them.
I always did well in high school, and at the time was convinced I wanted to get my PhD in Biology or Botany and had all these ideas of my future before I graduated high school. My first year in college was complete reality shock, and the part I get from my dad kicked in and I hated being around so many people. By the second year a girl I knew well from high school was a freshman at the same college and we spent a lot of time together. That wasn't in the cards and when that ended I got just passing grades until the school year was over. That summer I moved out to a huge six bedroom mansion out in the country with a few friends and did the party central thing for a summer and never went back to school in the fall. The party house thing fell through for obvious reasons, and I started working for a living and have done it all since then jobwise. From dishwashing to hanging billboards, cooking to data entry, production line to stock boy...you name it, I probably made a few dollars doing it.
About a year ago, one of my best friends started working for a small water damage restoration company and got me and a couple friends jobs there. They've since weeded out our employees so it's just us, the group of friends who pretty much run the place. The money is great, and better than what most of my friends who graduated college is, but the work can be very unenviable. If someones carpets need cleaned it's a good day. If someones sewage line backflows and fills their basement with a foot of raw sewage that's a bad day. If we have to do three sewage jobs and five clean water losses...that's today and thank god it's over. My schedule can be anywhere. I haven't worked the last three days and today put in a 16 hour day. Hopefully tomorrow is not a repeat.
Obviously orchids and plants are a big part of my spare time now, and recently other hobbies have popped up. In the last year, my interest in fish has been renewed, especially since I now have the money to do it right. It started with a rescuee Betta from WalMart and a few conversations with Park Bear about Killifish and is ending who knows where. In the last couple of months, my friend from work talked me into trying a saltwater tank and my new reef tank is my current money pit. I'm ashamed to say in the last couple of weeks I've probably logged more hours on the Reef Forums than I have the Orchids ones. I almost fear what the future holds...I just hope I win the lottery so I can support it.
I left a lot out, but I still probably typed more than anyone cares to read. The party years I left out as well, they would make a GREAT read, but I save those stories for when we're fishing. Besides, some of the stories aren't very appropriate for an orchid forum.
Jon
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Ferrari Modulo History
) What an addiction! I've recently decided to cut back on my collection though as it was getting to be too much work and not much fun.
