I have spent many hours reflecting on how I got to where I am today, and
to be honest I am still drawing blanks.
I am like my father in the way that we don't plan out anything.
Everything we do is on the fly.
By the seat of our pants.

The story I have chosen to share with you today. 
 Is a story from my senior year.
I was the new guy at a new school.
I had moved to a small country town.
Just outside of the city I once lived.
I stayed quiet and reserved.
As if I was an inmate at some prison called high school.
About a quarter of the way through the year came the school olympics.
It was a competitive event against the classes.
To see which class was the best.
Many people had volunteered for the events, but there was still some events that needed filling.
So my name was thrown out, and I was forced to participate.

The event itself was a joke. 
It was a plunger race across the gymnasium with scooters.
I had selected to be on the last relay, and the race was pretty close.
After watching the other students fail at propelling themselves across the floor.
I came up with a plan on how to properly use that plunger to get myself across the gym.

When the plunger was handed off to and I mounted the scooter.
We were neck and neck with the juniors.
Unfortunately for the juniors the person they had selected fail to break suction on the floor.
Without missing a beat I plunged at the floor as if I was in a canoe fighting white water rapids.
I flew past the competition in what seemed like a heartbeat, but I made a mistake.
I did this with my eyes closed.
the gym had fallen silent in awe of my incredible speed, and maybe the fact that I ran straight into the wall and knocked myself out.
From that point on people I didn't even know came up to me and talked to me.
I had become infamous around the school.
Everyone knew of me.
I won't lie there was a part of me that loved the attention, but then there was another part of me that hated it as well.
Thats when I realized I wasn't okay with just being the class clown.
I wanted more out of life.
I wanted to see things and go places that people would never ever go or see in their lives.
So I did the only sure fire thing I knew was a surefire way out of Michigan.
I enlisted in the United States marine Corps.
Fast forward five years it was during my second tour of Afghanistan in two thousand twelve.
My contract was nearly up and I did not know what I was going to do next.
All I knew how to do was fix helicopter and draw vulgar cartoons on post it notes.
I had seen the ad for Fullsail in a Game Informer that I had read over several times out there, So when I got back I gave the school a call, and talked to the veteran enrollment guides. 
After a few phone calls, and a behind the scenes tour of the campus. I knew that this school is where I needed to be if I wanted to keep moving forward, so now I am here.

Creative Compostion

Is this thing even on? (Incoherent noise)
I have spent many hours reflecting on how I got to where I am today, and
to be honest I am still drawing blanks.
I am like my father in the way that we don't plan out anything.
Everything we do is on the fly.
By the seat of our pants.

The story I have chosen to share with you today. 
 Is a story from my senior year.
I was the new guy at a new school.
I had moved to a small country town.
Just outside of the city I once lived.
I stayed quiet and reserved.
As if I was an inmate at some prison called high school.
About a quarter of the way through the year came the school olympics.
It was a competitive event against the classes.
To see which class was the best.
Many people had volunteered for the events, but there was still some events that needed filling.
So my name was thrown out, and I was forced to participate.

The event itself was a joke. 
It was a plunger race across the gymnasium with scooters.
I had selected to be on the last relay, and the race was pretty close.
After watching the other students fail at propelling themselves across the floor.
I came up with a plan on how to properly use that plunger to get myself across the gym.

When the plunger was handed off to and I mounted the scooter.
We were neck and neck with the juniors.
Unfortunately for the juniors the person they had selected fail to break suction on the floor.
Without missing a beat I plunged at the floor as if I was in a canoe fighting white water rapids.
I flew past the competition in what seemed like a heartbeat, but I made a mistake.
I did this with my eyes closed.
the gym had fallen silent in awe of my incredible speed, and maybe the fact that I ran straight into the wall and knocked myself out.
From that point on people I didn't even know came up to me and talked to me.
I had become infamous around the school.
Everyone knew of me.
I won't lie there was a part of me that loved the attention, but then there was another part of me that hated it as well.
Thats when I realized I wasn't okay with just being the class clown.
I wanted more out of life.
I wanted to see things and go places that people would never ever go or see in their lives.
So I did the only sure fire thing I knew was a surefire way out of Michigan.
I enlisted in the United States marine Corps.
Fast forward five years it was during my second tour of Afghanistan in two thousand twelve.
My contract was nearly up and I did not know what I was going to do next.
All I knew how to do was fix helicopter and draw vulgar cartoons on post it notes.
I had seen the ad for Fullsail in a Game Informer that I had read over several times out there, So when I got back I gave the school a call, and talked to the veteran enrollment guides. 
After a few phone calls, and a behind the scenes tour of the campus. I knew that this school is where I needed to be if I wanted to keep moving forward, so now I am here.
(Megaphone dies) (I walk away)

Nathaniel James Burghdoff