Hi,

Great question. I'll answer this through my values.
I value religious and financial literacy, as well as achievement, hard work, and fun. Achievement in fun stuff is also sick e.g. Coachella.

In high school I was a solid debater and track star. In college, I went to a conservative Christian college as an atheist, and I'm still atheist. Also run college track, going into my 4th year. I became very religiously literate in college as a way to armor myself against Christianity at my college. So that says a lot about my character.

I came from a dysfunctional family, but at the time I didn't know what dysfunction looked like so it seemed normal to me for years. (I won't go into a lot of detail, but my mother was undiagnosed bipolar who was angry much of the time and took her frustrations out emotionally upon the family, and my older half siblings were troublesome and created a lot of drama inside and outside the family, including illegal activity and other behavioral issues. We didn't have much money and my father worked a lot of hours in a factory, so I didn't see an awful lot of him day to day.) I was picked on a lot growing up, and insecurity festers and exacerbates such treatment by peers, so I was pretty miserable until I started getting involved in sports. (Oh, I sucked at athletics, but there's an in-group mentality that insulates athletes somewhat, and there is some real benefit in fostering confidence.) I did quite well academically all throughout school (ranked third in my class, Bauch&Lomb award recipient, etc.), except for that year in elementary school when I stopped doing homework entirely. And I was from a strict Catholic family, and I was an altar server straight through the end of high school. I was basically a parent's dream behaviorally, academically, religiously, etc. I'll say that ends Chapter 1.

Because I did well academically, had improved physically, and came from a poor family, I decided to apply to West Point (for a "free" exceptional education). I passed everything, but because of a problem with my medical tests (they forgot to take a blood sample and a cast of my teeth) my application was delayed and I missed the deadline. Otherwise, I had the grades, I did exceptionally well on the physical aptitude test, and I had the endorsements from a senator and representative, as well as the letters of recommendation, but a missed deadline is a missed deadline, so I fell back to attending a small, Catholic, liberal arts college. That turned out to be a great experience, and I wasn't terribly upset that I hadn't gotten into West Point (which turned out to be perfect, because we went into Iraq just after I would have graduated). It turned out that the college was all male, extremely small (dozens of students, not even hundreds, for the entire college), and extremely structured (five formations: academic, spiritual, service, wellness, and character — all with specific requirements). Despite the daily (M–F) morning prayer, thrice weekly (M,W,F) evening prayer, thrice weekly (Tu,Th,Su) Mass, required volunteerism, spiritual retreats and spiritual guidance sessions, etc., I still found myself by my junior year questioning the Catholic upbringing I'd received and the theology of the Church. I also during that time started dating a woman — but sexual relationships were disallowed at this college (even off-campus) and I could have been expelled had word gotten back to college administrators. The college, ostensibly due to low enrollment, decided to close after my junior year. I transferred to another college to complete my degree requirements, but it was more expensive and ate up all of my savings. It was a 100-level philosophy course that I took as a fluke that helped me to expedite my questioning of religion into outright disbelief. I'll end this as Chapter 2.

After graduation (which I didn't attend because of a conflict with finals), I moved back home and got a job working for a tiny marketing company that didn't know what it wanted to be when it grew up (lack of real focus). Eventually the company folded and I found myself looking for another job and found one working for a newspaper, where I still work though my job description has changed a few times, but I'm doing a lot of the same work (but now for all news properties). While I was at my previous job, my mother fell ill with cancer and she died. Even though I had a strained relationship with my mother, it was awful to watch her waste away over several months. Today my elderly father is still in good health and fairly active. I guess this is Chapter 3, not yet concluded.

Epilogue: I was a straight-laced kid in a small town with conservative ideals who conformed to values instilled within me from family, church, and school. Today I'm a godless liberal who couldn't give less of a fuck about convention. Although I'm not what I would call an outright nonconformist, I haven't done much conforming: I'm an atheist, vegetarian, anti-marriage, anti-natalist, non-drinker, who's been celibate for a very long time and doesn't especially care whether that ever changes.

Sorry, @AMGT, but this would take a book to write. Let's just say that my life has been shaped as a result of an attitude that was pretty well established before I reached the ripe old age of 10. The attitude is that I can do anything I set my mind to that is within the scope of my capabilities and I've made it a point to know my limitations and to be honest about them. As a result, I've done a lot and have very few regrets.