We start life roaming aimlessly without any direction or purpose.  Our parents tend to push us in certain directions.  If we look back on our childhood we can find many factors that have shaped us into who we are today.

I grew up as an only child.  I’ve heard several times that that explains it all.  I didn’t have any siblings to deal with and or learn to share.  I was the center of attention.  I played four sports in high school and graduated third in my class with a 4.24 GPA.  I have never made a B.  I guess you would have considered me a nerd.  I was into taking computers apart and fixing them.  I ran my first Bulletin Board Service or BBS when I was 14 years old.  I never dated until I was 17 years old.  I graduated at 150 lbs. soaking wet.  I looked like Kip from Napoleon Dynamite.  My mom still has a picture of me at her house that all my friends laugh out when they come over.  But it reminds me of who I used to be.

My first year of college I because engaged to my high school sweetheart.  After a year of being engaged I caught her cheating on me and it broke my heart.  Sometimes in life we need to get knocked down to rock bottom before we can choose to pick ourselves back up and make a change.

I joined a Fraternity and gained a ton of friends but I also stopped playing sports and tended to drink beer 7 nights a week.  Although my grades never suffered I gained 45 lbs my first year of college.  I guess it was from depression, alcohol and downright laziness.  I looked in the mirror one day and didn’t like the person that I saw.  I didn’t like me.

My best friend, Tim Bennett was a manager at Gold’s Gym on Nine Mile Road in Pensacola, FL.  He would also tell me to come and workout.  I would always make an excuse.  I said, “I really don’t know what to do.”  He said, “I will show you.” After a while of making excuses I agreed to come to the gym and try it out.  Tim pushed me and I liked it.  I took all my negative energy out on the weights.  I lost all the beer fat and Taco bell weight that I had put on in three months.  Then met a nutritionalist and started learning how to eat healthy.  Over the past 10 years I have been pushing myself and building muscle.  I now weight 230 lbs.  I have been a competitive bodybuilder for the past 8 years.

I found that bodybuilding was my therapy.  It helped heal me too.  I transformed into a new person.  I was motivated not only in the gym but at work and in life.  I became a confident individual who learned to take care of myself first.  In 2000, I shaved me head bald.  Not because I was balding but because I knew that I would be bald one day and I was curious to see what it would look like.  Not all heads are created equal.  I was afraid that I had a huge Frankenstein type scar under all that hair from my childhood days.  But to my dismay I had a rather round head.  So I vowed to myself that I would never grow my hair back.  It was another factor that created me.

While I was in college I got a job as a computer salesman at Tech Advanced Computers in Pensacola, FL.  When I graduated I was promoted to the store manager of the Tech Advanced Computers in Fort Walton Beach in Uptown station.  I actually was given the opportunity to open my own store.  I work there for 3 years while community back to Pensacola.  I got tired of the retail environment and was looking at working back in Pensacola.  The Daily News was one of my clients and was in need of a Network Engineer. 

After three years I moved up to the Systems Manager.  Two years later I was named the Panhandle IT Director for the Daily News, Destin Log, and Walton Sun.  At 27, I was the youngest department head in the entire Freedom Communications.

When I was 28 I had my first child.  I named him Jaxson Bryce Mobley.  His name is like Jason with an X.  Someone once told me that children will change your whole life.  And it did.  Once I saw his face a warmth came over me that I can’t explain.  But every parent here knows what I am talking about.  A love for a child is stronger than any love that I have ever had.  It is completely different than the love that I have for my wife.  I looked my son in the eyes when he was a little baby and made him a promise that I would be the best damn dad that he will ever see.  My son is my world.  He taught me how to love unconditionally.

In February, I was promoted to the General Manager of the Crestview News Bulletin.  I have always been in management and wanted to run a newspaper.  I have learned a lot about Crestview and what it has to offer. 

We are now the largest city in Okaloosa County.  It is not only our privilege but also our obligation to make sure that we continue to work together to make Crestview grow and prosper. 

I want to close with a few words of wisdom that I’ve learned along the way.

1.  Having Time:  You make time for the things that you want to do.

2.  Happiness: A wise man once said, “You cannot make someone happy.”  But you can make yourself happy and share your happiness with someone else that wants to share theirs with you.

3.  Change: Pee or get off of the pot.  If there are things about yourself that you don’t like.  Then do something about it.  Or if they are truly beyond your control then let them go.

4.  Find your own motivation.  Motivation cannot be taught it has to be found from within.

5.  Be the best parent you can be.  Put your children before yourself.  Ant take time to actually list to them.

6.  Live each day as it was your last.

7.  If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.

8.  If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because they are teaching you to love and opening your heart and eyes to things you would have never seen or felt without them.

9.  Hold you head up because you have every right to.  Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself.  It you don’t believe in yourself, no one will believe in your either.  You can make of your life anything you wish.

Good luck and much success in 2009.

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