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Me and my campers from the summer of 2021

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Since I was 8 years old, I have gone to Camp Longhorn in Burnet, Texas. It is a two-week sleep-away camp that focuses on swimming and growing into better men and women while having a blast. Through this place I learned to value lots of different sports, including swimming and running, both of which I did in high school. For the past 3 years, I have worked as a counselor, where I have helped other kids, age 8-16 grow in the same way I did. This summer I spent 11 weeks working there.

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Me and my high school counterpart in a joint middle-high school production of Grease! in 2016

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I have taken acting very seriously my whole life, from winning awards in high school, to school plays in elementary school. I love being in front of crowds and working with people to tell a story. Now, I enjoy doing things in front of people for fun, from karaoke to charades. Additionally, I credit my time growing up in theater to why I chose my major, which is Marketing.

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Me racing one of my friends from my out-of-school track team, Ashton, on March 13, 2020, the DAY the world shut down because of COVID-19! (Crazy timing, huh?)

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All four years of high school, I ran competitive track both in and out of school. This was my teenage version of "playing with my friends." The aspects of Track I carry as a part of my identity are grit, commitment, and building up other people.

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A photo of my old elementary school, Rummel Creek Elementary

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I was fortunate enough to be born into a well-off household. I have never had to worry about any of my needs being met, and my family could afford enough to send us on vacations and me and my sister to summer camp. This has allowed me to focus a lot of my time on my passions, and my family has always had the money to support them, which has helped me be athletic, scholastic and artistic

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I was born with a name from the Bible, Luke. This means that in my culture, I have always been confident in my name, because I have never had anyone struggle to pronounce it or question where I am from.

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A photo I took from the nearby ski resort, Alyeska in 2017

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From 2013 to 2017, I lived in Anchorage, Alaska. For me that was all of middle school plus a year of elementary and high school. Compared to Texas, which is where I have lived for the rest of my life, there was a lot less social pressure. Instead of focusing on fitting in, almost everyone focused on getting outdoors and taking advantage of our amazing wilderness.

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I am a man. I have never had any questions of my gender, either. I acknowledge that my situation is a lot more beneficial than other people's when it comes to gender as well. I grew up playing different games with other guys, which were my friends, which means that we mostly played traditionally masculine games, from action figures to Pokémon cards, to football, basketball and even Call of Duty. Additionally, I was raised with southern traditional values, so I practice chivalry and try my best to be a gentleman with women whenever I can.

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This photo has no personal relevance, I just felt it gave "public school" vibes

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While I was raised in a comfortable situation, I went to public school my whole life. In particular, my high school was very diverse, with people from all socio-economic groups of life attending. Through this, I have gained a more worldly perspective, and I have gotten a better grasp of how the world truly works.

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Here's the link to my video
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13w44hlz6RPJDWqwLEjqfH2UxRsDXm_jI/view?usp=sharing

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gjghe_7JTz1M1vKqSJAdPkAbcLca363S/view?usp=sharing

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tv8ZO2IYG9RWWRmUxclpJbqff6Gw6ZNQ/view?usp=sharing

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Growing up, I was the oldest on every side of my family, both of my parents were the oldest children, and even 3/4 of my grandparents were the oldest of their siblings. Because of that my parents did not have a lot of experienced advice from family members on how to raise a kid in "modern" times. This means that I was given lots of attention and was constantly entertained. I was not given as much agency as other kids in my family because I was being constantly told what to do or entertained, since my parents were very dedicated to making sure I was brought up the right way.

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I grew up in a predominantly white area. When I was in elementary school, I thought that learning about MLK Jr. and segregation every single year was redundant. I knew racism was bad, so did my classmates (or so I thought,) so I did not see a point. Only later once I was old enough to understand the media around me did I grasp the severity of racism and white supremacy in modern culture.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1feEj05H3e6sOfaSmodX3BTgRoZXIWCq6/view?usp=sharing

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I have a very specific anecdote for my experience with Gender and Sexism when I was little. I loved playing guessing games with people in the playground. I would go around and ask people about their favorite colors. Personally, I don't think I had one in particular, but I knew that there were boy colors and girl colors. So, out of the boy colors, which i thought were blue green and red, I liked green the most. I would go around asking people to guess my favorite color, and I would laugh if they said something like pink or purple because those were girl colors. I just thought I had to like a boy color because I was a boy. Now I'm a big fan of orange and I wear a lot of bright pink, and I'm not bothered by it.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LsbCoca3jLzAFPuHjeNQqTB7KJPD9_HC/view?usp=sharing

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/10e070trGGXtEWh2L4K6kayCfptEAW1s6/view?usp=sharing

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I grew up in a monolingual household, however I had a few bilingual friends. My grandparents own a ranch in Lago Vista, Texas, and growing up I would often invite the next door neighbor's kids to play with me. They were a Mexican family and spoke both English and Spanish fluently. I remember being amazed listening to them seamlessly switch between languages when talking to their parents. I asked them how they learned the two languages, and they just said they, "learned it the same way they learned English, by speaking it." That always stuck with me, even to this day.

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I remember growing up and every major educational TV show we watched in school always had a kid in a wheelchair, with The Magic School Bus coming to mind first. I never thought much of it until when I was older and realized that at the time of those show's release (late 90s early 2000s) there was a major social movement to be more accepting towards differently abled people. I never really had any unique experiences playing with differently abled people than me, but for some reason The Magic School Bus, and also Glee, come to mind on the topic of ableism and my childhood.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/16FPTHBX8z2tkM5HH8zuh6Zm5epuRsPzs/view?usp=sharing

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Looking back at culture and my life experience, I have had some serious culture shock that impacted my play. When I lived in Alaska from Texas in 5th grade, I took my manners with me. I would call every adult Mr. and Mrs. That was not normal in Alaska. Parents preferred to be called by their first names, and they would tell me, "No please call me Craig" when I called them Mr. Smith for example. One time I was at a large multi-family campout where I called my neighbor "Mr. Reitmier," and all of the other dads started laughing and calling him Mr. Reitmier as a joke. I had no idea why this was so funny, but I later found out that in modern Alaskan culture, being a Mr. or a Mrs. means you are old. They hear "Mr. ____" and they think of their fathers, and do not want to be old and immobile. For that reason, whenever I went to a friends house to play, I had to deal with the clash of my values of manners and the cultural norms of using first names.

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The land that I have lived on my entire life has had no connection to the indigenous people that once inhabited it. My best friend growing up was half Native American, however and he was relatively in touch with his culture. When the topic of stolen land was brought up in conversation, he made an interesting point, in that all land throughout history is stolen. From warring Mayan tribes in ancient Mexico, to ancient Mesopotamians on the Euphrates river and even recent land acquisitions like the U.S.A's "guano islands," all land belonged to some species or group before someone else inhabited it. He believed that it should not be anyone's goal to apologize to Native American people now, but instead the whole of America should work to lift poor Native Americans out of poverty and cease any and all hate directed toward them. Also, we should try out best to keep the lessons and values of previous cultures alive, which is why he and I have gone camping to appreciate and connect with nature once a year for the past three years.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qM4ilhDd82N5R1bFrd3gOx_i9k7qWG2H/view?usp=sharing

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I had unrestricted access to the internet growing up. Surprisingly, I came out of that mostly unscathed due to a very guilty concience mixed with trusting parents that I did not want to dissapoint. That can not be said for the rest of my generation. There is so much insanely grotesque things on the internet that my friends would watch, for example live beheadings. It caused my friends to be so desensitized to the world around them and I had no idea at the time. Also, most all of my "play" growing up had some technology involved with it. Whether it was playing video games in my living room or going to Chuck. E. Cheese, my fondest memories with my friends have technology in them. Being honest, I'm not sure how that has affected me. I don't really have a "control" group to look at since my whole generation grew up the same way. At least I wasn't and iPad kid!

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o_1KUnc1xkK1HhxcywUBcI-RzuIp4joB/view?usp=sharing