Can anyone see all of the United States? Chris has certainly tried

Chris Phan Nam Hoang’s room is not messy, per se, but it’s not completely organized either. It has a lived in feel, like someone has molded the room to make themselves comfortable. He seems to know where everything is, but God help you if someone else tries to find something.

Born November 20^th, 1989, Chris is seventeen years old, and has travelled throughout the country in his many years of life. His father, Dung, is a computer engineer who has completed a lot of work for various banks, the reason the family moved around the country so often was for his work. Currently, his father is working in North Carolina while his mother, Michelle, is unemployed. His sister, Maria, attends Virginia Tech and is currently a grad student there.

Chris has been all over the country in his life, attending no less than 11 schools. He has lived in New York and California, as well as many places in between. When he lived in San Francisco he lived near that great symbol of the West Coast, the Golden Gate Bridge. While he was in Los Angeles he lived next to the famous Santa Monica pier the location of many of the Nickelodeon stars. When Chris lived in northern Virginia and Maryland he was near the capital of the country, and when Chris lived in Chicago he was close to where Michael Jordan used to play.

Besides the repeated moving around the country, Chris’ household was odd in other ways as well. Chris was raised half-Catholic and half-Buddhist, in his home there contained one room that looked like you had stepped into a church, another room contained what looked like some kind of temple that should be on a high mountain in Asia somewhere.

At one point, Chris and his mother took care of fish. His favorite was a little fish named “Bubba.” Bubba was the smallest fish in his group, sadly, Bubba is now dead.

Chris has many interests, the greatest of all being break dancing. In middle school he saw a Limp Bizkit video and saw a dancer, who he later found out was called Mr. Wiggles. Chris strived to be like Mr. Wiggles and started learning how to dance and practicing his moves.

He formed a group with his closest friends in middle school who he would practice with and learn new moves. All the middle schools he went to had a yearly talent contest, in which he would participate. Everyone thought that it was really cool, but he did not get much recognition. Nobody really knew his name, just that he was the kid who could dance.

Once he started attending high school Chris would go out on weekends in the local area of wherever he was currently living and participate in local competitions. On average, he won more often than not.

However, when Chris got to his junior year of high school he stopped going to competitions, as he had gotten a new interest, sports. He joined the Varsity Football, Varsity Wrestling, and Varsity Track teams at his school. While he greatly enjoyed doing it, it took up much of his time. His father was “really happy that he started wresting in his junior year then played football in his senior year.”

In his final years of high school, homework and sports took up almost all his time. He would get up at eight o’clock in the morning and go to school, where he would toil and work until 3:45 in the afternoon. After that he would go to his practice, which would last from four o’clock to 6:30. He would return home exhausted every day, where he got to look forward to homework from all four of his classes.

Chris is a very relaxed and chill guy, in his own words he is “chillaxing.” His friends and family also seem to agree. His longtime friend and current roommate had this to say about him, “He is probably the most laid back guy I’ve ever met, open-minded, understand, hilarious to talk to once you get to know him.” I myself have found that he is a very easy-going guy.

His parents describe him as being very “gentle,” his father had this to say: “I’m really aggressive and self confident while my only son (Chris) is a ‘poet’.” His father even had a good story to illustrate how gentle and laid-back he is.

Back when Chris was eight or nine his parents enrolled him into a Chinese martial arts class. Around three months into the class he had to pass a test to advance to the next belt level, as part of this test he had to spar against another student. The other student he had to spar against was a girl, and while he would defend himself when she attacked, he would not attack her back.

Even though Chris knew he would lose by doing this, he wouldn’t hit a girl. After the test his father “asked him why he did not hit the girl back. Chris told me because “… she’s a girl, Dad, and I don’t hit girls …”.”

Chris is currently studying at Virginia Tech in the Engineering Department. He plans to major in Computer Sciences. After graduating he wants to own his own computer company. He also desires for those things everyone wants, a good family, a nice house, and a nice car. Chris would also like to teach dancing to kids at some point, and get them as addicted to it as he himself is. And why not? It doesn’t appear to have done Chris any harm in his life, as he is a very “chillaxing dude.”