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A stream of half-connected thoughts I have while I run:

Stretched.  Ready to go.  This isn’t bad.  Breathing  controlled.  I could have gone faster.  Music pumping.  Focus on lyrics.  Focus on nothing.  Zoning out.  Letting go of stress.  Feeling healthy.  Each foot step closer to being more healthy.  Bananas give me great energy.  I love bananas.  Heart rate up.  Cardio zone.  Burning calories.  Training.  Training for what?  For myself?  For others?  Want to look good.  Other people train.  Cops joining the force need to run an 8 minute mile.  Marines and Army recruits have to run.  I wonder if I could survive that type of training.  Breathing a little more rapid but still controlled.  Sandstorm by Darude hits it’s apex after the initial lull.

Endorphin.

Feeling good.  Running with an unknown cause.  Running and not stopping until the time runs out on the treadmill.  If I can’t finish a run how can I finish law school?  Renewed energy.  Looking around at others in the gym.  We take for granted the men and women who serve our country in the armed forces.  They sacrifice so much so we can have freedom.  That’s a noble pursuit.  I think everyone owes something to their country.  Thinking about girls.  Girls from the past.  Girls I know now.  Girls “that got away.”  Girls I will meet in the future.  I want to look good.  Running is great.  My Nike sports headphones aren’t slipping like other shitty ones I’ve had.  They were a good investment.  The beat from Van Halen’s Panama starts pumping.  I know the next 3:32 minutes will fly by.  The hook begins to play and an awesome chill rushes over my body .

Endorphin.

Final part of my run.  Glance at clock.  Close to 5 minutes left.  Last 5 are sometimes the hardest.  Why not stop now?  No!  Finish.  Don’t be a pussy.  Kick up the MPH a few points.  Focus on breathing.  Do this for yourself.  Do this for law school.  Do this for Mom and Dad.  Do this for friends.  Do this for your country (what?).  3:14 left.  Look down at my Pi tattoo.  Pi never stops — why should you?  Realize this doesn’t make sense.  Slight cramp.  Have had those before and gotten through it.  I’ve also felt worse than this in my life and gotten through it.  As Nike says JUST DO IT!  Final 2 minutes.  Kick up the MPH again.  Don’t puss out!  No music or thoughts will help you at this point.  Just push yourself.  30 seconds.  On auto-pilot.  Running fast.  Near sprinting.  Legs working independent of mind.  Just moving. 3… 2… 1…

Endorphin.

I’ve been debating what to write for my next blog post for some time.  There have been a few inarticulate ideas kicking around, but nothing inspiring enough to get me in front of the computer.  Then, this morning, it hit me.  I’m thankful for so many things in my life — not in a Thanksgiving-I-am-thankful-for sort of way — but sincerely thankful that certain things in my life are the way they are.  Here is a list (open to tweaking) in no particular order.

Thank God…

1. I’m not married.
2. I don’t have a kid.
3. I have a mom and dad who love me.
4. I have great friends.
5. I’m a male.
6. I’m intelligent.
7. I’m creative.
8. I’m my own boss.
9. I went to college and graduated in 4 years.
10. I’m going to law school.
11. I’ve been to Ireland.
12. I’ve loved at least one person in my life.
13. I have my awesome car.
14. I’m not a virgin.
15. I have no disability.
16. I am able to run.
17. I am healthy.
18. I make/have enough money to pay my bills even in this economy.
19. Obama is our president.
20. I have a sense of humor.
21. I got through a difficult time with alcohol.
22. I’m not a religious fanatic (not that religion is bad).
23. I can keep a conversation going.
24. My sarcasm sometimes goes unnoticed.
25. I’m artistic.
26. I can solve a Rubik’s cube.
27. I can still take the derivative of an equation.
28. I look really good with a tan.
29. I don’t take shit from people.
30. For computers and the entire IT industry.
31. For movies and the entire movie industry (minus the MPAA — suck my balls)

It’s been nearly a year and a half in the making, but my friends and I finally got our Pi tattoos.  Chris Armenio, John Belter, Sean Teller and I went to Smokin’ Tattooz last night (11/29) in Kent and all got inked — some of us for the first time.  Noticeably wussing out and NOT getting a tattoo (even though she promised she would) was half-Asian Sarah Scroggy who nonetheless provided event planning services, and moral/emotional support.  

The tattoo appears slightly to the left of the center of my wrist, and along my watch band (so it can be hidden when it needs to be).  The entire tattoo fits within a 1 inch square.  The image on the bottom shows off 3.14 – 3 fingers up, wring finger down (point), pinky finger up for 1and the entire count of up fingers being 4.

Other important attendees during this historic event include: Mike Pavis, Lou Colorito, Katherine Dunn, Matt Coleman, Jeff Zimmerman, Caitin Ganley and Jeff Burk.  All of whom looked on as the rest of us endured.  Honestly, the needle wasn’t painful at all, and I was expecting much worse.

Why get Pi as a tattoo?  I can’t answer for anyone else, but for me I’ve wanted it for a long time.  There is beauty in mathematics, and Pi is an important number (ratio) used in calculations that define our world.  It’s infinite, never repeats itself, powerful in its simplicity and unique.  Pi is God’s number.

Additionally, the Greek letter Pi resembles neolithic Irish dolmens – or altars.  Dolmens pepper Ireland, and my dad and I saw a lot on our first visit there.  So in that way, my Pi tattoo will help remind me of those fun times.

Some of the dolmens my dad and I saw on our first Ireland trip.  Notice how similar dolmens are to the Greek letter Pi?

After I graduated from Aurora High School I was accepted to Hiram College, a private liberal-arts school in Northeast Ohio. I brought to college a more sophisticated work ethic than I had in high school, and an open mind. My first course, The Quest for Justice, was taught by one of my favorite professors, Ken Alpern. I’ll never forget my first class with him. Imagine 20 or so students loudly piling into a classroom. Ken just sat there, like a stone, stoic in his stature. Settling whispers and coughs crescendoed to a roaring silence. Still, he sat there gazing upon each of us. Clutching our copies of Plato’s Republic we sat there not knowing what to expect, and in a state of paralytic fear. Then he spoke, quietly and somber, yet somehow loud and thunderous, “Open your books. We will read the first sentence together. This will be the first sentence you will read as college students, and it will be from a text that has had profound impact on humankind. Remember this moment.” As he began to read aloud we read along in silence. It was Socrates talking, “I went down to the Piraeus yesterday with Glaucon, the son of Ariston.” In that day, my first day of classes, Ken set the tone for the way I approached higher education. He also, perhaps unwittingly, peaked an ongoing interest in philosophy. Over the course of 4 years at Hiram I had 3 courses with Ken all of which were top-notch. When one speaks of memorable teachers he surely has a place among my top 5.

Unlike many other students I knew coming into college exactly what I wanted to major in, computer science. Hiram’s CS department is extremely focused, challenging and educationally demanding. We are the only college in America to have an all female faculty, and also one of only a few that require 2 research projects before graduation instead of just 1 which others schools normally ask of their students. There will always be a place in my heart for the 2 senior faculty members, Obie Slotterbeck and Ellen Walker. Their lifetime experience alone is a wealth of knowledge, and their enthusiasm for the subject matter second to none.

My proudest moment as a professional student was my research project done in Ellen Walker’s Computer Vision course. I developed a fully supervised and trained vision detection system for classifying sign language letters within photographs. I approached the project with the same energy and determination I had in my chemistry project. I dominated the research and understood every technical detail required to make my system work. The satisfaction I had from the project was some of the purest ever felt. When I gave my presentation to my fellow students and professors a great exhilaration came over me. You know what’s a great feeling? Working your ass off for something that you know you’ll get an A in, and having 100% confidence going into a presentation that you won’t get anything but an A.

Like most people who look back on their college years I remember mine as being some of the best of my life. Unlike most people, however, I don’t want to look back on them as if I can’t have even better times ahead of me! I am not done with life! I still have things to offer this world and things to do. After graduating it was a very strange feeling to not be returning to school the next fall. I miss learning. I miss research. I miss that undescribable spark a person feels when they’re on a campus with other smart people who are equally active in educational endeavors. The atmosphere is viral and electric. Hiram College, if nothing else, injected into my soul a desire to learn even more than I know today. To defend freedom of thought. Lastly, by generating a pang (sometimes painful) that I should strive for even more learning.

In the words of Hiram’s motto — fiat lux — let there be light.

One memory from high school stands out among many others. It illustrates clearly what type of person I came to be. My junior year I decided to take chemistry even though I had no idea what to expect except that everyone knew that the teacher, Brian Rohrig, taught a difficult course. On the first day of class I made a promise to myself: I would get an A, and would make every effort to do as well as I could. And I did. I learned every bit of material he threw at us, remembered every element, knew every calculation, and could convert any unit required. Every extra credit work was turned in the next day (one question asking if there are more atoms in a drop of water or drops of water in the oceans — the answer being more drops of water in all the oceans). A model student was an understatement for what I was, and as a result I earned over 100% each quarter (compared to the class averages of C range). I earned a spot along with 2 others to represent AHS as an top-notch chemistry student in a national chemistry test. More than anything I poured my soul into that course. Near the end of the year, several weeks before Summer vacation, AHS hosted an honor student awards ceremony. I was invited and suspected I’d be receiving the chemistry award. The night, however, was to be a great disappointment. Mr. Rohrig chose another student (who was also deserving) over me. The result crushed me. I wanted to leave, and felt embarassed for having thought so undeniably it would be me. I was mad at Mr. Rohrig and went home that night deciding not to do a bit more work in the class (which realistically would drop me within the 90% range since my grade was so high anyway).

The next few days I was still fuming until a moment of realization rushed over me in an awesome wave of clarity. Our last assignment was to build some sort of “product” which we could market/sell that utilized chemical reations. It was obvious to me after my epiphany that I needed to knock the ball out of the park with my project. Sulking was no longer an option — I would instead focus my energy positively to show to Mr. Rohrig that he had greatly mistaken in choosing someone else. The feeling wasn’t one of maliciousness, but rather acceptance and action — to pull myself up an demand nothing but absolute success.

I spent weeks developing my project and when it was done it was easily the greatest achievment of my high school career. I developed a 3D topographical board game where players had to make it across an island laden with chemical reaction boobie traps. That wasn’t all. The driving force of the game was a computer program which tracked player progress on the board, showed fun graphics on the screen, and allowed students to view the chemical reactions taking place if they fell into a boobie trap. The presentation was exhilirating. The response was astounding. I ended up earning the highest grade on the project ever given out. I had overcome my demon and showed that I was capable of amazing things.

Later, I asked Mr. Rohrig for a letter of recommendation. I still have it somewhere around my house, and if I ever come across it I’ll post it, but take my word for it that it was glowing. You may also wonder if I ever confronted Mr. Rohrig about not receiving the outstanding student award. Well I did — when I visited his house to pick up the recommendation letter. He said that I was by far one of the the most dedicated students he had ever seen, but he ultimately chose honor awards based on grades. My friend, Adam (the person who won the award) squeaked by me by just a couple points. In light of my accomplishment this seemed far less important. The life lesson I took from this, of course, was to never to give up, never view a setback as total failure, and tolerate nothing less of yourself except the best. Mr. Rohrig, was one of the best instructors I’ve ever had and I owe a large part of my character development to his course.

The next year Mr. Rohrig was fired. He was a demanding teacher who wasn’t afraid to hand out bad grades to bad students. He firmly believed that you had to earn the grade you received, and parents complained. Because of this, and probably other comlaint(s) the administration fabricated to justify their action, he left our school system. Hopefully the story I’ve shared stands as a testament to his ability to change at least one person for the better

- Books written by Brian Rohrig as listed on Amazon.com
- Brian Rohrig’s teacher biography at his current school

I’m frickin’ sweet. That’s all you need to know.

AG

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