My Top Ten Life Changing Experiences and Honorable Mentions

1. My father took our family on a trip across the Great Plains in 1985, giving me a love of travel and exposing me to breathtaking sites, in particular the Badlands National Park and the Black Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming's Yellowstone.
2. I spent the summer of 1991 traveling through the Southwest, getting my first taste of the desert and solidifying my interest in photography. I cannot forget the sensation of sunrise at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley or the colorful solitude of Capital Reef, Utah.
3. In 9th grade I began to learn German and have been a student of languages and words every since.
4. In December, 1991, on the streets of Szczeczin, Poland I purchased a bootleg tape of The Cure's "Disintegration". This lead me to a great interest in song lyrics, which soon lead to my first attempts at writing. This also began my conversion to "alternative music" and away from "classic rock".
5. In the summer of 1987, I listed to Dr. Kurt Jankowsky (still the best example I have encountered of someone in command of the Big Picture) in Trier, Germany tell us about the history of Europe since the Romans and the nature of language itself. Later that summer I encountered Berlin and its Wall for the first time and began to put the pieces together for myself.
6. I spent the school year of 1985-1986 in Mr. Klinkhammer's AP Literature class and gained a love for reading literature and not only history.
7. In the winter of 1984 I saw the movie "Amadeus" and was brought into the world of classical music. Only later, when I made my pilgrimages to Beethoven's birth city (Bonn), Mozart's birth house (Salzburg), and the church where Bach was choir director (Leipzig) did I learn how profound the combination of film and music could be. 
8. In one of my earliest memories, I recall my mother taking me to the library when I was about four years old. Intoxicated by the presence of all this knowledge within easy access, I attribute my curiosity for anything new to these formative years.
9. It may have started through a book club flyer at school, but somehow in 3rd grade I got my hands on a book about the stars. I quickly began to make my own observations, uncover an interest in Latin, and I remember almost all the constellations and names to this day, but beyond that I gained a great interest in physical science.
10. It started with a desire to enhance accuracy at work, but since I built my first database in 1997, I have discovered my true calling or at least my current career in computer programming.
11. My parents got me a book about explorers soon after I began to read, and to this day I can remember the pictures and the stories of Magellan and Marco Polo.
12. In 1980, our 6th grade teacher, Mr. Sinha, told us about many places, but no day was more memorable than his slide show about his trip to Egypt. It is impossible to overestimate the influence that this had on me in terms of archaeology and historical research, not to mention the wanderlust that this certainly instilled.
13. I had heard stories about it from my sister, who loved art and painting, and beginning in 1986 I paid many visits to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. While marveling in the works of the past, I discovered that there were many exciting things taking place in the present as well.
14. My father took my to a World War II movie called "Tora, Tora, Tora" in 1976 when I was only nine. Already greatly pre-disposed to history, I longed to be a pilot on an aircraft carrier and soon knew all the intricacies of the Pacific island hopping campaign and only later turned my attention to the war in Europe. 
15. On a wintry March day in 1985, I purchased a hot red Italian racing frame manufactured in Vincenza, Italy to satisfy my intense need for bicycling and exploration.
16. During the spring of 1988, I met Father Murphy, who must be the most enthralling educator I have ever encountered. He taught us about 20th century German literature, but I am convinced that he could make anything seem interesting.
17. In November, 1979, revolutionary Iranians stormed the American embassy in Iran and held our entire nation hostage for over a year. This was the beginning of my fixation with news and current events.
18. While paging through books at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee library in 1994, I came across the poetry of E E Cummings and thus began my systematic approach to writing.
19. In the spring of 1989, I walked through the ruins of Pompeii and on Omaha Beach in Normandy, visiting the two places I most wanted to in the world and coming face to face with living history.
20. On a winter night in 1989 in what I now regard as my intellectual home, I sat in a theater in Leipzig, Germany and watched awestruck as images on the screen married music in Philip Glass' Koyaaniskatsi.
21. My interest in baseball lead me to enlist my father's help in organizing a baseball team in 1976. The season ended and fostered my passion for numbers and my reverence for history.
22. In the winter of 1990 I attended my first classical music concert in Leipzig's Gewandhaus. On the program that night were Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. It was a little known piece, but I have been a great fan of Stravinsky ever since.
23. During the summer of 1988 I was at home for a few months, and I found myself often going to the local library. I took out a lot of tapes and CDs of artists I wanted to learn more about, especially Bob Dylan, The Who, Neil Young, Bach, Chopin, and Prokoviev. Over the next few years I listened to very little contemporary music, and it lead me to the firm belief in the supremacy of classical music (obviously) and "folk music" over "pop music". 
24. During the fall of 1979 I began to spend a lot a time with my best friend, Paul. We each liked listening to comedy tapes, very popular at the time. Our favorite was Steve Martin's "A Wild and Crazy Guy", and we each memorized most of the album. This began a lifelong interest in comedy and a great appreciation for these keen observers of human existence.