Name: James Simon
Born: September 9th, 1974

Why anyone would want to know, I just can't say, but here it goes anyway!!

Describing oneself is never an easy task because we all ask ourselves what information is relevant to the person your addressing.  Obviously you would describe yourself differently to someone you had a love interest in than you would to your average everyday Joe.  If you're reading this, I am going to guess your the latter so I will try and break it down by just explaining where I have been and how I got here.

I was born in northern Michigan in a town called Petoskey.  At age 2 my parents divorced and by age 5 I found myself moving to California with my mom (Kathy) and step-father (Dave).  Throughout my 13 years in California I would fly back to  Michigan every summer and winter vacation to visit my dad (Rick), step-mother (Rita), sister (Trista), and brother (Jesse). 

Of the 13 years in California I spent my time moving between quite a few different houses and locations but mostly we stuck to the southern part of the state.  Eventually we made residence in a town called Big Bear located in the mountains.  My mom and step-father owned a restaurant at which I worked from the age of 13 on.  Big Bear was a small resort town on a fairly decent sized lake.  It catered to what we called "flatlanders" (people that didn't live in the mountains) during the summer for the hiking and water sports, and during the winter with its ski resorts.  In High School I played Football and Baseball, preferring Football, as well as maintaining a fairly respectable academic career, graduating in the top 10 of my class.

After High School I decided to pursue my College years in Michigan.  I attended a smaller college in mid Michigan by the name of Saginaw Valley State University.  My aspirations originally were to be an Architect so SVSU was just going to be a stepping stone for me.  After my first year I came to the conclusion that I wasn't really in the mood to move anymore, since I had spent the majority of my life never really staying put for very long, so I had to find something that SVSU offered that would interest me.  Graphic Design ended up being my major of choice.  Within four and a half years I graduated Cum Laude from SVSU with a B.F.A in Graphic Design/Ceramics.

Within a few weeks of graduating my roommate Shawn and I moved to Lansing Michigan.  He moved because he was also following the Graphic Design path but decided he wanted to get that degree from Michigan State University, and well I followed because I had nothing else to do.  I would have to say that this time in my life was probably where I hit the biggest life changing fork in the road... that one point you can look back on and say, "my life would be a lot different if that one event would not have happened."  What was that event you ask?  Well, for the six or so months prior to moving to Lansing I was chasing after a girl named Stephanie and she really never came around to having an interest in me as more than a friend until one week before I moved.

Living in Lansing was fun, a big college town with lots going on every weekend.  The first job I found was working at a coffee house by the name of Cappuccino Cafe.  I probably went through about 10 to 15 interviews with design firms and printing company's in the area before I had to settle for that job.  Four or five months down the road though my luck changed and one of those previous interviews landed me a graphic design job working for International Minute Press.  I was doing design and layout work, pre-press setup and post press packaging.  It was shaping up to be a nice stepping stone.

During that time,  Stephanie and I were having a long distance relationship.. well if you call an hour drive long.  If she was not at my place for the weekend I was driving back to Saginaw to visit her.  We had our rocky moments and almost broke up but late in '97 we got pregnant.  By February of the following year I found myself moving back to Saginaw to live with her and preparing to bring a new child into the world.

Before long I found work in Saginaw with an Internet provider named Concentric Network, doing technical support.  That is the same job I hold today but the company now goes by XO Communications.  Luckily I have moved up a little bit in the ranks over the years and no longer directly support customers but instead help our reps who talk to customers.  As you can see.. I'm far off that whole Graphic Design path and there is a lot of overgrowth covering the trail back to it.

So, in July of '98 a son was born to us.  It was the most amazing moment in my life, just being part of bringing a new life into the world is a special thing.  On Brennan's first birthday Stephanie and I were married, and unfortunately by December of 2001 we were separated and on our way to a divorce.  Luckily everything went relatively smooth in the separation and I get to spend quite a bit of time with my son, almost every day of the week.

All of that basically brings me to where I am today.  Sometimes I wonder where I would be if Stephanie had not decided to take an interest in me that week before moving to Lansing, but I can't say I am disappointed in where I am today.  Most importantly I have a beautiful and amazing son and in August of '03 I purchased my first house.  The next steps in my life include getting out of this dull job and hopefully finding an amazing woman to make a life with.