Here's a not-so-brief summary of my life.  I was born at 2:22 p.m. on June 24, 1976 in Mason City, Iowa.  My family (my parents, named Ann and Hank, myself, and my younger sister Jessica) lived on a farm north of Ventura, Iowa until just after I finished the first grade.  I don't remember a whole lot about this part of my life obviously, but I do remember Robbie Cash punching me in the stomach on the bus.

    Farming wasn't too profitable, so we packed up and moved to Pasco, Washington.  My father worked at Sagemoor Farms, learning all about raising fruit, etc. My mom waitressed, and then sold new cars for McCurley Chevrolet .  I went to Ruth Livingston Elementary School. 

    I remember a bit more about this period of my life, including being sentenced to detention for calling a playmate a "nigger" on the playground in the third grade, having absolutely no idea what the word meant, it was just one of those things I'd heard on cable, and besides, he'd taken my soccer ball.  Well, he was black too, but actually that was just a matter of coincidence, my elementary school was highly integrated, and half my playmates were black.  The school also had a high number of Hispanic children, due to the large numbers of Hispanic workers in the surrounding orchards and vineyards, such as Sagemoor.

    When I was in the fourth grade, we left Pasco to move to Sandy Valley, Nevada.  If you look really hard, you may find a map with this town marked.   It's about 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas, on the California-Nevada border.   There I attended Sandy Valley School which was not exactly a well-funded educational institution.  My mom soon started working in auto sales and financing before moving on to insurance and currently real estate.  My dad managed a sod farm, before taking his current job at the water treatment facility for the city of Las Vegas.

    Our school was a unique place. All the teachers had to commute to the school from Las Vegas, 50 miles away, every day.  Many viewed it as the worst teaching job in the world, but a few really enjoyed teaching the students there, and my favorite was Mr. Roy Freeburg, a great guy, looked like a hippie and worshipped Hulk Hogan. 

    Mr. Freeburg also taught my "AT" or Academically Talented class, which consisted of five students who tested well and got out of Music and Art classes to enrich our talents.  Now, this wasn't exactly a highly organized environment compared to "Project Spectrum" which was a program I attended in Washington, and wish I had been able to continue, I used to be able to divide 5 digit numbers in my head and was doing algebra in the 4th grade there, but alas, we moved to Nevada. I will say this though, as far as "Gifted" programs go (why do they call smart kids gifted? Anyone ridiculed by their classmates for being smarter views it as some kind of bizarre curse, especially if they're afflicted with myopia as well, as am I) Sandy Valley's AT program was infinitely better than the "TAG" program I attended in high school, but more about that later.

    I went to Sandy Valley School from the fourth through the ninth grades, and didn't get in too much trouble, except for the time my friend Jake and I got busted for ditching class to swipe software off of the assistant principal's computer at the request of another teacher  I was in the boy scout troop, which was run by the Mormon church, as is everything in Nevada.  Most of my friends, including Jake, were Mormons, which was really no big deal to me, I just bowed my head and prayed when they all did, not really caring.  In my opinion, Mormons look like they're mad when they pray, they fold their arms on their chest and scowl at the ground.

    My Boy Scoutmaster was James "Bo" Gritz , read the link associated with his name, and I swear to god I am not making up the fact that he was my boy scout leader.  He was a bit of an extremist, it was widely known in the community that he was training rebels from Afghanistan in the dry lake bed in our valley (I have no idea if the CIA was involved in this, but I bet I'll get an e-mail from them), with automatic weapons, ultra-light aircraft, etc.  He  had a couple planes of his own that he took us flying in, and I got to fly one around over the valley once.   They were just Cessnas, but boy were they neat.  Once, we went rappelling off of a 100+ foot cliff, I remember Bo throwing the rope over the cliff, then selecting one of us scouts to go down it to make sure it was long enough to reach the bottom or hadn't gotten tangled (there was a bulge in the cliff face which prevented us from seeing the bottom) I'm just glad it wasn't me who was picked, I nearly wet myself when I went down it later.

    Kids from Sandy Valley School had to be bussed into Las Vegas after the ninth grade, to attend Basic High School .  No, really, that's what the school was called, it wasn't for slow kids or anything like that, but really, who wants their diploma to read "Basic High School"? I didn't, so after finishing the ninth grade, I moved back to Ventura, where it all began, to attend high school.

    I left my parents and my sister to move back to Iowa.  I attended Ventura High School .  This is the same school district I had started my education in, and being a very small Midwestern town, most of my classmates were the same, and even remembered me.  I had spent many summers there with my grandparents, so I still knew several of them and had gone to vacation bible school for a couple summers as well. 

    I was a major dork at Ventura when I started my sophomore year there.  I wore glasses, which pretty much dooms you to nerd-dom automatically, being smart only compounds the problem, and owning a computer guarantees you will not be on the varsity sports teams any time soon.  I began to question whether or not I really should have moved back to Iowa, I didn't really miss my parents and sister that much (no harsh feelings, I'm just not overly sentimental that way :))  My date to homecoming my sophomore year was the female class nerd, and her father was suspicious of why I'd been "sent to live with my grandparents" and wanted to know "what I'd done to get kicked out of my parents house". Well, nothing, I left to get a decent education, and to avoid catching the bus at 5:00am every day.  I'm not making that up either, kids in Sandy Valley really had to do that, and my sister did later, but at least she got to go to a much better school than I would have, for she attended the brand new Durango High School in Las Vegas.

    Well, I survived my sophomore year, mostly due to getting acclimated to my new environment and making friends through the speech and drama programs.  My junior year, I still wasn't all that popular, but I wasn't a complete outcast, and had a few great friends who I've kept to this day.  I started working at Borderline Pizza & Video when they opened in our town.  I made four dollars an hour, had to drive my own car for deliveries, wasn't reimbursed for the mileage, and was forced to take unpaid breaks when business was slow, but wasn't allowed to leave the building.  So, I quit that job as soon as I started working at McDonald's where I got more money, had better hours, and developed a worse complexion.

    I was active on the school yearbook, drama, yearbook, and the golf team.  Had a good time, but for the summer, I returned to Sandy Valley to work at A.G. Sod Farms where my father was the manager.  I made six bucks an hour mowing the sod, and had a pretty good time until I developed a hernia.

    I was in the shower one day after work, and was amazed to discover that I had apparently grown a third testicle over night.  Well, this freaked me out a bit, but I had it checked out my a doctor and discovered that I had an inguinal hernia.   So, that ended my work for the summer, but since the sod farm was on the California side of the valley, I was covered by the excellent workman's comp. laws of the Golden State.  So, I had a hernia repair surgery, and now have a plastic patch in my groin, and a nifty scar on the left side of my abdomen about three inches long.  This redefined my idea of pain, (the surgery, not the hernia itself, which was painless) for after waking up in the recovery room, I was promptly sent home, (an hour long car ride!) after having a shot of morphine injected in my ass.  Now, for anyone who doubts the pain involved here, all I have to say is "Go try it".  To do an inguinal repair, they cut all of the muscles in your side, go in, pull your guts back out of your scrotum, and patch up the hole they went through to get there.  it's the first part of this that hurts the most, for you don't realize how much you use those side muscles until they're sliced in half. I could breathe, but it hurt, and talking was pretty much out of the question.  Walking? Not even remotely possible, okay, well they made me do it (and pee) before they sent me home, but I was under the influence of morphine, and the pain wasn't quite as bad then as when I just had Lortabs to manage it. Thank god for narcotics is all I have to say.  If you've ever got to have a surgery of this type, don't even thing about "toughing it out", take the drugs.

    Eventually, (six weeks), I recovered and returned to Ventura for my senior year in high school.  My senior year was pretty typical, I wasn't the most popular kid in school by any means, but I was at least considered "normal" by most of my classmates, and I kept up most of the same activities as my junior year.   I still worked at McDonald's and started looking for a place to attend college.   I took my ACT exam, scored a 30 (highest score in Ventura in 7 years) so I figured I could go about anywhere I really wanted to.  Ventura is sorely lacking in the "Gifted" area of education, there was one teacher who would try to get those students classified as such to come in before school to do lame brain teasers. Not exactly intellectually stimulating stuff, and really, who wants to go to school early? Not me.

    I was a "good" kid in high school, didn't party a lot or anything like that. But I did get in trouble for breaking in to the school once. Okay, let me explain, I was to compete in the individual speech contest that was going to be held on a Saturday, but I didn't have my two pieces memorized yet on Friday.  Due to a snow storm, school was cancelled, and my scripts were in my locker at school!  I called the school, the teachers were all there, and told my speech teacher to meet me at the door at 2:00 pm so I could get my material.  I showed up, she didn't.  So I pounded on the door for about 15 minutes, no one answered, but it was obvious all the teachers were inside because their cars were outside.  Not wanting to look like a fool the next day at the contest, and listening to another student who said "You know, if you pull on that door hard enough, it'll open even though it's locked." I did just that. I yanked the door open, nothing violent, mind you, I'm not Superman.  Well, just as I did that, Mr. Thein, my evil math teacher, walked around the corner and caught me.  I tried to explain, but he didn't really care, and he ratted on me to the principal, but I did manage to retrieve my scripts before being ejected from the school.  I didn't get in too much trouble, but I did lose my open campus privileges for a week, and was "made an example of" for the other students by the principal, Mr. Fey.  I think there's something wrong with an educational system that punishes a student for WANTING to get into the school for non-vandalism purposes. But in any case, I memorized Atticus Finch's closing speech from "to Kill A Mockingbird" and did reasonably well at the contest, earning a trip to the state competition. 

    I visited the University of Iowa , didn't really like it there, it was too cold crossing the river on their campus and too urban for me, also, there was graffiti on their campus, which was not something I look for in an educational institution.  I REALLY wanted to go to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. My distant cousin Tracy, who was a year older than me, and a high school chum, went there, and I visited the campus often.  It's a really beautiful place, and a nice school, even for someone who's not particularly religious, such as myself.  But, it costs a LOT of money to go there, and though I had good test scores, I was a slacker in high school, (3.2 GPA) and scholarships were not in my future, and I fell short of National Merit Scholar standing, only receiving the status of "Commended National Merit Scholar" or some such, which means you get no cash, but you do get a piece of cardboard with your name on it at graduation and a blurb in the local paper. I also got called to the principal's office and congratulated for making the school look good, despite having spent the bulk of my formative years at other schools.

    So, I looked to Iowa State University as my future destination.  My parents both went to this school, so they encouraged me to check it out.  I visited, liked it, and applied and was accepted (If you actually attended high school, and/or filled in at least some of the bubbles on the ACT, you can be too!).  In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't go to Luther, I think I would have gotten bored on a campus of only 2,000 students.  I've fallen in love with this place, and even after four years, I'm not ready to leave.

    I graduated from high school in May of 1994, got no scholarships (they all went to that same Robbie Cash who punched me in the stomach in the first grade at the beginning of this page, but he later dropped out of the University of Iowa), and started my fall semester here at ISU.  Having chosen Iowa State rather late in my senior year, I was assigned to the Towers Residence Halls.  I started out as a Pre-Business major, planning to eventually major in M.I.S. or Management Information Systems.  My first roomie was Steve Steck , a guy from outside of Chicago, who was okay, but we never really hit it off all that well.  At the semester, I moved in with Kahn Evans , we got along pretty well, never killed each other anyhow, even though he had a tendency to date my ex-girlfriends. :) 

    After my typical freshman year at Iowa State, I began to get more involved on the campus.  I worked on the Summer Conference Staff for the Department of Residence , and made some friends who were involved in student government.  In the fall, I was appointed to the Towers Executive Council, where I served as the Facilities Chair.  I enjoyed the experience, it made me a little less shy around my peers, and I applied to be a Resident Assistant .  So, in the spring semester, I became the new RA on Sage House, the 8th floor in Storms Hall .  I also changed my major, from M.I.S. to Psychology , after realizing that I didn't have the patience to be a programmer, or care about money enough to be a businessman.

    I really enjoyed my RA position that Spring, returned to Summer Conference Staff for the summer, then back to 8th floor for another year as an RA in the fall.  My junior year at Iowa State was great, my friend from high school, Jeremy Grimm , moved onto my floor after two years at a community college.  I applied to be a Cyclone Aide , and spent one of the greatest summers of my life working Orientation for the University.

    After Orientation ended, I took a semester off of school to work at Wybtrak, Inc.   It's a computer/technology company in Las Vegas, Nevada.  I can't honestly say I enjoyed working there, but the money was good, and I learned a lot about what kind of place I DON'T want to work for after graduation.  I did technical support for their clients, as well as some of the development work on their Credentialing software.  So basically, I spent all day working in Filemaker Pro, and explaining to healthcare workers how to un-jam their printers over the phone.  At least I earned enough money to buy a new car !

    I was extremely glad to return to Iowa in the Spring of '98, resumed my RA position, now on the ninth floor of Wilson Hall , and re-adjusted to college life.  I worked for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture , providing technical support and purchasing recommendations and evaluations for their office computers and technology. 

    During the 1998-1999 school year, I lived in Wilson Hall, and worked for the Entomology Department on their homepage, as well as providing technical support and solutions for the faculty and staff under the watch of John VanDyk .   I learned a lot about the web from the server side, and the pressures involved in maintaining a site that takes about 20,000 hits a day!  I was also an RA or Resident Assistant in Wilson Hall, I did this job for 3.5 years , and it got a little old, so I spent most of the year looking forward to the day I would graduate and join the "Real World" (not the show on MTV).  

    After my graduation in May of 1999 from Iowa State University, I continued to work at both of my jobs at Iowa State University, while looking for permanent employment.  I eventually found it!  I started working at the University of Northern Iowa in July of 1999, as a computer support specialist, under the watchful eye of Steven Larson .  I worked for the College Of Humanities and Fine Arts , in the Tech. Services unit.  I moved to Waterloo, Iowa, and if Iowa had a wrong side of the tracks for the entire state, Waterloo would be it. 

    I stayed with CHFA for a little over a year, before being hired to work in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences at UNI .  I did much the same type of computer work there, but it was a little less tense, and a little easier to maintain the computer systems.  I finally got my own office, and really enjoyed my job, if only it paid more...

    In November of 2001, I got engaged to a wonderful woman named Holly Kaufman, though I'm not going to write any sappy crap about her being the love of my life here, because I don't want you to vomit.

    In June of 2002, we bought a house!  It wasn't as painful as I thought it'd be, but now we own a nice 1961 Ranch style house on Oregon Road in Cedar Falls.  It costs a bit more to live on this side of the Cedar River, but it's close to work, and in a great neighborhood right by parks and recreation trails, and we love it.

    On September 7, 2002, we were married in my hometown of Ventura, Iowa.  It was a great day for the both of us, all of our family and friends were there, and everything came together for a beautiful wedding .  We didn't take a honeymoon right away, we returned to Cedar Falls, and the new house we had just bought together.  Being a homeowner is a lot more work than being a renter, but it has advantages too, especially financially.

No children are planned as of yet, so don't even ask!

In October of 2003, I wound up changing jobs within the University again. This time I took a job within the Network Services division of Information Technology Services, the central campus IT group. My new job duties include running the data backup system for the university, taking care of wireless networking, maintaining the AntiVirus system, and whatever else gets thrown my way. The job came with a big pay raise, but I had to give up some of the luxuries of the CSBS job, such as a private office.

    Are you still reading this? If so, I'm really impressed with your patience! Drop me an e-mail at seth.bokelman@uni.edu if you've got any comments or questions for me that I haven't answered here, I hope this helps you understand somewhat who I am, and where I've come from.

Copyright © 2004 Seth H. Bokelman