Late one night Keith, Jon’s roommate and Keith’s girlfriend were working on an engineering problem. It was getting late so Keith’s girlfriend slept in his loft across from Jon’s. Keith came back at 4:30AM and instead of waking her up decided to sleep on the floor.
Jon woke up a few hours later wide-eyed thinking, “Keith’s a woman!” This is one of many stories, but perhaps the most appropriate one for this profile. Putting the occasional insults aside, Jon and Keith seem to be good friends. After Keith insulted Jon’s intelligence Keith said, “On a good day he would reciprocate.”
Jon was born in Baltimore on October 30, 1989. He is German, Polish, Hungarian, Danish, Scottish, and Turkish. His family is from Sykesville, Maryland. He grew up on a 75-acre property, that’s as big as 57 football fields. He went to elementary school twenty-five minutes away. His favorite memory from elementary school was lighting the torch at their mock Olympics.
Jon is a self-proclaimed thrill seeker. He loves amusement parks, especially the thrill rides. He goes to Six Flags at least once every summer, most twice. Jon doesn’t like to be limited to dry land though, he also enjoys going to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, which is essentially the water version of Six Flags. He went to Mount View Middle School while living in Maryland.
Unlike elementary school he didn’t have to walk very far to go to his high school, Glenelg High School, spelled the same way backwards and forwards. This school is right next door to his house. Considering he lives on 75 acres it was still far.
Jon’s Dad is in the construction business, his Mom is a teacher. Since he was three or four years old his Dad would take him to ride dirt bikes. It grew on him and he really likes it. He has three bikes an MR50, XR100, and a CR250, which are all Hondas. Jon also enjoys riding in his snow mobile skidoo-touring sled, which holds three people. He lives a very active lifestyle. Walking back to our dorms one day he commented about how he was going to run 5 miles that day around the drill field. This wasn’t his first time doing any serious running he was just starting up again. He has been on the track team since the spring of his sophomore year. He did shot put and discus.
Having an active lifestyle also can come with risks. Jon has had his share of injuries in the past. Jon injured himself in indoor track in the spring. He spiral fractured his leg. The bone did not regenerate itself and 2 years ago he had to have prosthetic bone put in. The surgery went well, but he went into respiratory distress from an allergic reaction to the pain killer. This put him in a full leg cast for three months. When the doctors were examining his spiral fracture they actually found a benign tumor on his left tibia bone. Once while snowboarding Jon broke his wrist. Staying on the subject of accidents, he was involved in one major car accident where a truck ended up being totaled.
Jon’s favorite hiking spot is in Hagerstown; it’s called black rock. His Dad showed it to him when he was ten years old. He continued to go there when his church had camp meetings there. Jon’s best friend is Jim Miller. Jon’s mom introduced the two over a decade ago. They were building houses newly next door. Which was half a mile away. They were building back to front and his was one of the first houses to be put in.
Jim actually got accepted into Virginia Tech, but decided to go to Clemson instead. Jane and Lindsay are from Salisbury and Jon has known them since he first started spring track. Jen has a sister named Shelby who Jon had become good friends with. Jon met Mike Ross this past year he described it as one of those friendships that just clicked right from the get-go. Mike goes to Howard community college; he may transfer to Tech later.
Jon’s grandparents and cousins on his Mom’s side live in New Jersey. He usually sees them four times a year; sometimes his grandparents would visit him. Their whole family would go on one or two vacations a year. This past summer they went to Disney World. Past years they went to Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona. Every Christmas, as a family tradition they go see a Broadway show and eat at a steak house in New York. On his Dad’s side his grandmother lives closer to him than on his Mom’s side. Due to conflicting schedules they never see one another too often.
Jon’s Dad grew up in Ellens Mills, Maryland, and his mom in Staten Island, New York. His mom grew up in a strict household, her Mom was nicknamed Sergeant. Jon’s parents have been married for twenty years. Jon used to live with them in a small ranch house on the 10 acres of the property until the ninth grade when they moved into a stone house also on the farm. His grandpa had built the house, but unfortunately passed away before it was completed. This happened when Jon was thirteen. Jon’s favorite family trip was when they went to the Bahamas and rode jet skis.
Jon’s job in high school was to fix computers. If a computer broke he was the first person to know about it. He was frequently pulled out of class to fix computers. He sometimes got paid, but never had a consistent paycheck. There were 1000 computers at his school, which kept him extremely busy; he was the Lead Student Technician. Jon got accepted into Maryland, Michigan State, and NC State. He decided to go to VT because he liked the location and the atmosphere.
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