The people I know make my life what it is -- my assorted relatives, my friends here in Troy, and my old friends who no longer live near me. I'm happiest when I'm with the people listed below.
My parents have been divorced since I was young. My mother has built herself a life of family, home, and community. She home-schools her children, gardens, goes for walks, is active in church, visits with relatives, and reads about organic farming. She has been happily married to my stepfather for more than 20 years and they have raised four children together.
My father worked for many years as a night watchman in a factory. During the time he had this job, he also went to school, earning an Associate's Degree, then a Bachelor's, then a Master's. Now he teaches history at Keene State College. For many years he lived in a cabin in the woods which was heated by a wood stove and had no running water, but now he has an apartment with a real bathroom.
I grew up with my brother David. He is an animal rights activist living in Santa Cruz, California.
My other siblings were born when I was in my teens and twenties.
Stephen is the oldest in the second batch of siblings. He graduated from the Hartt School of Music in 2003 and has held a variety of jobs as a piano accompanist and organist. He's also a backpacker and naturalist. He has seen many species of birds and can recognize them by their calls. He took a year off from work a few years ago. In fall 2005, he spent 4 months traveling around 15 different European countries, and then in spring and summer 2006 he hiked the Appalachian Trail. Now he is back at work as a musician, including with Hartford Opera Theater. Also, Stephen likes pirates.
Next is Daisy, adventurous and strong. Since January 2002, she has been traveling around the U.S. and the world, working for a few months in one place, then moving on. She has backpacked in national parks, hopped freight trains, slept wherever she can find a spot to hang her hammock, crewed on a sailboat, picked corn, worked at a camp as a challenge course specialist, and ridden camels in the Sahara Desert. Now she for the first time since she began her travels, she has stayed in one place for over a year. She has been in Brazil doing capoeira since fall 2006.
Jesse is a compassionate, intellectual and philosophical person. He enjoyings reading literature and writing. Not wanting to engage in wasteful consumption, Jesse makes or finds things as much as possible, and when he does have to buy something, he goes to the thrift store. He finds food in dumpsters and growing on trees. Jesse does crafts, carpentry, and papermaking. He is a vegan and cooks many things, including bread, bagels, apple pie, tofu cheesecake, tofu stuffed shells, and vegan pizza.
The youngest, Ben, is now taking community college courses and soon will enter RIT as a bioinformatics major. He is a transhumanist and enjoys gaming.
I've told you about 7 people so far, and that's just my immediate family. I also have an assortment of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives.
My father's sister Sahay and my mother's mother (called Grandma by many besides her grandchildren) are both people who strengthen connections between family members. They keep in touch with relatives, welcome people into their homes, and help out family members when they have difficulties. Through them, I learn about what's going on with the rest of the relatives, so I feel connected even to those I don't see very often.
The picture below shows some relatives from my father's side of the family. From left to right, they are my aunt Sahay, my uncle Rik, my uncle Bob, my father, and my grandmother.
In addition to family, friends are very important to me. I'm not one who chats easily with anyone who is front of me, but the few I choose as friends mean a lot to me. I value people who:
Some of the best people I've known over the course of my life include in approximate chronological order, Jason, Maria, Tom, Joe, Neal, Peter, Nathan, Meisha, and Ethan.
