I was born in Worchester Massachusetts on the Spring Equinox 1969. At the age of a year and a half, my mother moved to Portland, Maine to be with a man who later become my stepfather. A few years later my family increased by one with the arrival of my sister. We were the quintessential nuclear lower-income working-class family with all the dysfunctions that made life interesting and painful. I attended Portland schools. This was a textured and experiential part of life that has provided meaningful life knowledge. I became a father to a son at eighteen. To meet the responsibilities of parenting, this new responsibility forced me to withdraw from the University of Southern Maine where I was pursuing a Liberal Arts degree. My early work experience was in construction, but, at the age of twenty-three I found a calling, a career in social work. I have been providing support to people with physical, cognitive, and intellectual challenges for 30 years. This has taught me plenty about people, and even more about myself. I have often said that this was an education that would never have been attained in college. I currently live with my wife and second son in Windham. Maine.