Writing about myself in a biography format has never been easy. Writing or talking about myself isn’t uncomfortable in bits and pieces, but — for whatever reason — I have a tendency to be shy when it comes to this format. Also — for whatever reason — I always tend to start in the spring of 1984; so why should this time be any different?
When I was a teenager, I lived in Naples, Italy, in a region occupied and controlled by the Comorra. No shit. If you watch the movie, Gohmorra, the beach scenes, the arcade scene, and a few other scenes — my coming-of-age stomping-ground. I attended and graduated from Naples American High School in 1987. I arrived half way through my freshman year, and — due to my father receiving orders to a new duty-station before I would graduated with my class — I was incentivized to double-up on some credits, allowing me to graduate a semester early. The alternative would have been to stay with friends of my father or graduated at a an unfamiliar high school after spending only one semester. I have always regretted not staying. Who knows what opportunities there could have been to remain longer? Perhaps I would have had second thoughts about joining the Air Force?