About Me
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I was born and raised in North Carolina and have lived in multiple apartments and even my grandpa's house for the first two years of my life. Then my Dad, Mom, and I all moved to a house in Stallings, NC where I have been living happily all throughout my childhood and young adult life. This is the place that I have come to know as home, and in which I have had many wonderful moments and life-changing experiences. Whether it was experiencing the birth and relationships with my two brothers and one sister, making connections and great friendships with our close neighbors, or simply enjoying small and memorable moments with my family, the house in which I live now will always hold my most cherished childhood memories and will forever hold a special place in my heart.
It is from my home and upbringing that has made me the person I am today, and a lot of my characteristics and personality can be traced back to my parents. From my dad, I have learned how to view the world in a different light and through him have come to realize the true meaning of love and care for one's family and legacy. He has continuously taught me and pushed me to strive and be better at everything that I do, no matter what the circumstance. Through my mom, I have learned how to be humble and that no matter what challenges one is facing there is always time to help others. My mom's loving and caring heart continues to impact me every day of my life, and it never ceases to amaze me how much she cares and loves for the people around her.
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The things that I have learned from my parents have molded a majority of the personality that I have now including leadership, self-accountability, respect, and integrity. Remaining strong in my Christian faith and devotion to Jesus Christ is another thing that I have learned from my parents and it is a foundation that has proved to grow and strengthen even more as I get older. A few more characteristics about myself would be that I am the one that expects the most out of myself, and likewise hold myself to a very high standard when it comes to doing well in school and in a job. Through all of these things, I strive to be the light to others and be an example as well to people who look up to me and see me as a leader.
The characteristics that make me who I am today have helped me to get through and do very well throughout my schooling career. Striving to get good grades and please my parents and peers was always at the forefront of my goals when it came to school. I pushed myself to perform to the best of my ability all the time, it was my mother who soon made me realize that this was not possible and that I wouldn't be able to expect 100% accuracy every time I did something. This taught me a very valuable lesson, in that, I could strive to do my best all the time, but there would be moments in which I would falter and would have to get back up and try again. Teaching moments like these are what helped me to push through the workload and stress of middle school and extra-curricular activities such as Taekwondo. When the time came to make the transition to high school, I was well-accumulated with what I could expect from myself and also was getting used to a balance between school and extra-curricular activities. One thing that I had yet to master however was time management. With starting high school and a new instructing job at my Taekwondo school, I had to buckle down and make sure that I had the proper time for both activities. This required me to develop a strong ability for time management and even got me to start thinking about how I could be ahead of the game with school and other activities. From that point forward I have developed a strong liking for being organized, and this has led me to prefer doing assignments and tasks earlier rather than on time. This trait has been a part of my personality ever since and it continued to be how I handled things at South Piedmont Community College as I finished up the Career and College Promise Program and then enrolled as a full-time student to work towards my associate in the arts. This characteristic of organization and promptness has caused me to better enjoy my leisure time as well as time with my family and friends. These characteristics will also follow me to the workplace and I hope to utilize them to aid me in my job as a successful businessman or musician/music producer. My job will be the ultimate showing of my true character and goals so it is therefore very important to me that I find a job that brings out my inner passion and utilizes a majority of my skills.
Taekwondo and Music are the two activities that have had the most impact on my life so far and they have proved to be very beneficial for me as a person. Through Taekwondo I was able to learn so much in terms of important life skills and how to treat others. I have developed the necessary skill and persevered to the level of a 3rd-degree black belt to be able to not only defend myself in emergencies but to also show courtesy, compassion, and courage in everything that I do. I have met some of my best friends and teachers through doing Taekwondo and many of them have become long-lasting friends who have had a strong impact on my life, character, and even faith. These friends have been met through learning, teaching, and even performing as a demo team at GMTA and even though my Taekwondo journey has now come to an end, I will always cherish and remember the lessons and skills that I learned over the years from my Instructor Master Song.
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Music has also been a very important factor in my development as a person. It all started when I was in middle school and looking to go to CATA for theatre. I had to try out a piece known as "There are Giants in the Sky" from the play Into the Woods, which ended up being a life-changing experience for me. As soon as I finished the first few notes Ms. Morgan (the Sun Valley Middle School choir director) looked straight at me and said "why are you not in choir." This was the first time someone with a profession in music had told me that I was good at singing, and it made me feel great. Since CATA entry was based on a lottery, I did not make it into CATA and I ended up going to Sun Valley High School instead. However, I am so glad that I ended up at Sun Valley. Turns out, Ms. Morgan had contacted Mrs. Mitchell (who was the SVHS choir director) and told her that she needed to get me into her class. So Mrs. Mitchell ended up reaching out to my dad and that is how I got into the choir for all four years of high school. During this time, I have learned so much regarding how to improve my musical ability and understanding; and I was able to make even more friends which led to my Freshman year of high school becoming one of the best years of my life. Throughout high school choir, I have sung solos in many concerts and even have been a part of multitudinous choir festivals. These festivals include the 9-10 All Select Wingate Choir (which I attended twice) and the Mars Hill Festival Choir. This experience with music has made it become my strongest passion, and I hope to do something with music in the future; even if it is not a career.
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After high school, my journey at South Piedmont Community College continued through the pursuit of my associate in arts. I was able to enroll at SPCC with up to four classes most semesters, and strived to balance my workload at school with my commitment to my jobs at both Taekwondo and the moving company called Haulers & Installers. This feat was made much easier with my acquired skills of time management and my ability to consistently stay ahead of my workload in order to create more free time for myself. These skills can mostly be attributed to the online setting that I was a part of for most of my time at SPCC. Due to the pandemic, I got real comfortable with the online format of schooling; even though I much prefer meeting in person for classes. This change in the format allowed me to further develop my accountability with schoolwork and it also gave me the skill of being able to determine what was necessary to focus on in each course so that I could succeed. I continued to improve what I learned over the course of each semester, and through this process, became very comfortable with my strategy for success at SPCC.
All of these experiences have made me who I am today and have taught me how to be a light and example to the world around me through acts of love and kindness. Whether it be Taekwondo, my school career, music, my friends and family, or my strong faith in the Lord; I have all of these influences and aspects of my life to thank for the person that I have become.