The Journey Begins
Every saga has a begin. Every journey begins with a single step. This is mine.
Mine began May 17, 1974 at 3:43 p.m at Saint Davids hospital in Austin, Texas.
My name is R. Ryan Copeland, son of Randy and the late Kaye Copeland (b. June 14, 1948, d. June 9, 2000).
On December 12, 1978 I became the brother to Patrick Todd.
I attended Round Rock High School and graduated in 1992, with a class of 500 plus others.
Up to that point I never knew where my journey through life would take me. Then I spent four years in the navy as a hospital corpsman. It was while a corpsman, talking with patients, especially the much older patients, that I began to see life in a whole new perspective.
I first traveled to San Diego, California where I spent six months.
After California I was stationed in Seattle, Washington . It was from this point on I knew where I wanted to be for the rest of my life.
After Washington, I was transfered to the island of Guam where I would be for two years. But here my journey through life only picked up speed.
In October of 1995, my friend Steve and I traveled to Australia where we spent 18 days traveling around. We visited Sydney, Adelaide (Austin's sister city), Alice Springs in the Outback where we spent five days camping in the desert, Cairnes on the Barrier Reef, and Brisbane, a bustling metropolis. We stayed in youth hostils, not only to save money but to experience life itself away from normal travelers.
In May of 1996 I traveled, by myself, to Hong Kong, China. Here I saw one of Britain's last remaining colonies, handed back to China in 1997. I also visited Macau, the Portugese city on the mainland, on the border of China.
In all of those journeys I was exposed to many different cultures, many completely opposite our own. Guamanians had a mixture of Philipino and Asian cultures; Australia was a mix of British and Australian; Hong Kong was a mix of Asian and British. I tasted different foods; experienced new and exciting locations and things; met wonderful people, many of whom I struck friendship with.
Also along the way I witnessed life coming into the world, the birth of a new life, born while I was in Washington, as well as death while I was in Guam, many of whom were patients that I had become friends with.
I was honorably discharged in 1996 and returned home. After unsuccessfully trying to get into Texas A&M, I took a job as a state Senate messenger for five months (please see link below) before starting Baylor University in Waco, Texas, first studying archaeology and then switching to sociology. I graduated August 11, 2001, the first in my family to go to, and complete, college.
Waco proved to be anything but a city in which I would want to live. It was as if all evil in all the world was focused on the one location. There was an attitude among the people of Waco which makes an outsider feel uninvited and unaccepted.
The best part of my journey, though, was when I met a very wondeful, loving lady, Christi DeAnn.
On May 1, 2000 we became engaged and on December 16, 2000 at 2:00 we were married!!!! Christi is a very wonderful person and very special to my life. She means everything to me. She has red hair and brown eyes. She is very beautiful and I don't know what I would do without her in my life. She is a graduate of University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas.
On June 20 we found out that Christi was pregnant!! We were both so excited about being parents!!! Please visit our home or visit our daughter and son .
Click here to read some of my sayings.
Click here to see some of my trip to the beautiful city of Seattle.
To see more of my interests click here .
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