This picture always makes me laugh when I look at it cuz of that cow lick. This was taken when I was in 1st Grade at Burlington Elementary School in Burlington, Ohio. I totally look like a little geek in this picture...a geek with the cow lick from hell.

This was taken in 2nd Grade. So we're talking like 1986. I was so not happy at the time. I hated my step-father...I hated my teacher...and I basically just hated life in general. I remember I got in so much trouble cuz I didn't smile in this picture...and my excuse to my mom was "The funny guy wasn't there."

This is my 3rd Grade picture...taken at South Point Elementary School in 1987. I'd just changed schools. I actually was a lot happier at South Point than Burlington...the kids were (a little) nicer. I think this was the year that kids started calling me "gay"...as if I didn't know already like I needed them to identify it for me. I would later learn that kids are just stoopid and only hurt feelings to hide their own insecurities...I would also learn that teenagers and adults do that as well.

Definitely not my favorite picture of my schooling years. This was taken when I was in the 4th Grade in South Point, Ohio. This would be the year I met Nate DeLong...who would turn out to be my best friend (practically my brother) in a friendship that would end up lasting for many years.

My last picture taken in elementary school, this was taken when I was in the 5th Grade. This was probably my best year (or my favorite year) when I was in elementary school. Being 1989, I had discovered Poison and other various hair bands of that time period and found what I thought I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to be Rikki Rockett from Poison...cuz he just seemed like the coolest drummer. And when you're a kid in the 5th grade, anyone older than you seems cool (even Milli Vanilli seemed cool at that time...till they got busted).

This was probably one of my better school years. I had discovered KISS and everything changed for me. KISS was my new hobby...I wanted to be Paul Stanley (even though I would dress up as Gene Simmons every Halloween some years later). This is my favorite school picture of all the ones I've ever had taken. I think you can kinda see that in my eyes in this pic...things were somewhat going fairly well for me at this time. Much better than they would later be.

This is my 7th Grade picture from when I was a student at South Point Middle School. This was taken in late 1991. I was such a brat that school year. I used to steal people's locks off their lockers...and I don't know how I got by with it because I'd do it when they were standing at their locker. Looking back, I must have been such a complete burden that year.

This was the year I looked like a convict. It was my 10th Grade year at South Point High School. It was fall of 1994. I was trying to look similar to Tim Gaines from Stryper during the "Against The Law" era (I have always loved hair bands from the 1980's...and I wanted to be them most of the time). This time period was one where I was continually losing myself spiritually and personally. I was going to church and then acting like Little Preacher Boy to everyone and just generally looking like a fool. And I had pushed my friends away and Nate and I weren't even speaking unless it was a moment where we'd make a really mean uncalled-for comment to each other.

This was my 11th Grade school picture. I had cut my hair a little and joined the school band for marching season. I was in the pit percussion. It was a better year for me. I was slowly finding myself again and I really felt like I was a part of something by being in the band. Nate and I started talking and were becoming friends again, although things would never ever be the way they once were. No matter how many times I closed my eyes and tried to imagine it being a better way, it would never heal. But I would deal with it and things would eventually change for the better and I would emerge from the situation a stronger person.

This is my favorite of the senior pictures that I had taken back in early October 1996. I like the early 1980's MTV brick wall-type background...I thought it was cool at the time. It still looks kinda cool.

This is one of the few senior pictures that I have left. Not my favorite, but it was one of the better ones taken. There's still that brick wall background which was cool. It adds to the whole "rebel" affect...which was exactly what I wanted. That's exactly what I had become.