I was born to be an athlete. It must be in my DNA. When I was just a young kid growing up in the small town of Inez, Texas, I would always be running along the dirt roads, climbing oak trees, playing in the corn fields, and of course, fishing in the local creek. From dawn until dusk, it was always non-stop activity…at least until dinner time.

I loved to play sports – any sport. It really didn’t matter what sport it was, just sign me up and put me in the game. Unfortunately by high school, my parents thought it might be a good idea if I spent a little more time studying and a little less time playing. Reluctantly, I had to make some tough choices and focus on just my favorite three sports: football, baseball and track.

As luck would have it, I was really good at all three. I made it to state in the mile relay and I was all district in both football and baseball in both my junior and senior years. Like I said before, being an athlete has always been in my blood.

My college years were no different. As a freshman at Texas Lutheran University in Sequin, I was selected to play quarterback for the football team. Unfortunately, after one year at TLU, I quickly learned three important things: 1) how much it hurt when a college linebacker hits you from your blind side, 2) how there was absolutely nothing to do in Seguin, and 3) how much I really missed playing baseball.

Goodbye, Seguin. Hello, Austin!

In my Sophomore year, I transferred to Concordia University in Austin to play for their baseball team. I took full advantage of this second chance and worked extremely hard to excel both on the field and in the gym. All of my hard work and sweat paid off in a big way. As a junior, I was selected as the American Southwest Conference Second Team Outfielder. Although our team may not have had the best win-loss record after each season, I will always be grateful that I had the opportunity to play the sport that I really loved during my last three years of college.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. College is only four years (at leastfor most of us) and, in May of 2009, I received my bachelors degree in Kinesiology from Concordia. My parents decided that, after twenty two years of supporting me, it was time to cut the purse strings. I had to find a job. Since I’ve always been a good athlete and I love to work out, it seemed like helping others achieve their fitness goals would be a nice fit. During college, I interned with Heat Fitness and Athletics in Victoria and the Competitive Athletic Training Zone (CATZ) in Austin as a personal trainer, so it made sense for me to get my personal trainer certification, which I did in 2009.

After interning with Jon and Human Machine Athletic Club during the last semester of college, I knew that this was the place where I wanted to begin my professional career as a trainer. In these last two years, I’ve worked hard to make sure that our clients have gotten the most out of each hour that they spent training with me. I’ll admit it. They don’t always enjoy it at the time, but once the workout is over and they’ve had a chance to wipe the sweat off their faces, they can usually muster up a sincere smile and appreciative “thank you.”

I was born to be an athlete. How many people are lucky enough to be able to do the one thing in their life that they were born to do? I feel truly blessed to have such amazing friends and family to support me as I continue down this path. I owe much my success to these special people in my life!