VIRB

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About Me

The "About Me". As essential as it is pointless. Found on every website, blog, and social network profile. But how can I expect to sum up all of who I am in a simple "About Me"? The truth is that I can't. No one really can, but I can attempt to give you the crash course in Christopher Schnese (that's me).

The Origins:

I grew up in a somewhat conservative household where content of "questionable" nature was often eliminated from the home environment. This led to me living a somewhat sheltered childhood. Because both my parents worked, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, where we spent most of our time watching television, movies, and documentaries. I became fascinated with dinosaurs and archeology, deciding that I would grow up to be a paleontologist. Additionally, as I grew older and could handle "scarier" content, I fell in love with stories of the paranormal, extra-terestrials, and government conspiracies.

I had plenty of friends at school as a kid, yet beyond that my friends were limited to my neighbors and the kids of my mother close friends who'd visit occasionally. Because of this, I spent a lot of time developing my imagination. I would use pillows to create caves where I'd play archeologist, I'd steal all the blankets from the house to make forts where I'd hide out, I'd setup huge command center computer terminals out of old broken remotes and spare computer parts, and I'd wage massive battles between my lego creations. I could play for hours on end with nothing more than a little figurine, even one with no moving parts.

In the 5th grade I was introduced to Role Playing Games (the pen and paper kind) and for the first time in my life I really found something that I felt was designed for people with my imagination. A few years later I was introduced to a little video game called Final Fantasy VII, which was designed (like the many before), to be played like a pen and paper RPG. This blew me away and instantly moved me from the category of "casual video game player" to "Gamer". This definitely helped me down my path to geekdom.

Flash forward to the end of Junior year, High School. I had the rare (for me) opportunity to tour around the United States with a local Drum Corps. In embarking on a trip away from all friends, family, and anyone who knew the person I was, I developed a second personality or alter ego which allowed me to cope with the radical change in environment as well as blend seamlessly into the group of individuals I'd spend the entire summer with. Once returned, I was able to transition back into my previous personality, but the alter ego remained leading to a mild dissociative identity. Fortunately, both personalities are aware of each other and neither competes for dominance. Over time, I've learned to pull from the strength of each while compensating for the flaws of the other.

Jump ahead to my first semester of college. For the first time in my life I had a job, money, a license, a car, and almost total freedom. I could afford anything that I may have needed and no longer had to rely on those around me. I had the opportunity to grow and shape the person I would become without restrictions and unwanted outside influences. I stopped going to church with my family and spent most of my time away from home, inventing myself and shaping the person I would later become.


The Religious Beliefs:

I don't pretend know or understand the differences between the different denominations, so lets just say I was raised Christian. As a little boy, I was used to waking early, getting dressed up, and heading off to church every sunday. I never much cared for the sunday school classes and always wanted to go with my mother into "big church". For a while she resisted, but eventually she dubbed me old enough and allowed me to spend my sundays in the big church with her. For a brief period of time, I was really drawn into the experience and often felt like the sermon each week was especially directed towards me.

Over time, however, things started to change and I lost this feeling. We moved around to a few different churches and my enthusiasm for the whole experience began to quickly dwindle. As I got older, I got very analytical and began to become very interested in what I could see rather than what other people told me was there. Though I continued going to church, naturalism settled in as the best explanation for the world around me and I began my agnostic phase. Though phase probably isn't the most appropriate word for it. Once I was old enough to drive and had my own car, I stopped going to church all together and wouldn't return for five or so years.

I went through a pretty serious breakup that sort of turned my world upside down. I felt very lost and betrayed, and I needed a place to go and a way to deal with the whole situation. Luckily, I had many different friends who would be there for me in different ways. I went from being a somewhat closed off and isolated individual, to being incredibly social and outgoing. One group of these friends just so happened to be members of a local church. Though our viewpoints and beliefs were drastically different, we never had any issues and none of us ever felt the need to push their beliefs on the other or question the each other about them. Overtime, their passion for what they believe became very apparent and I began to wish that I could feel that way about anything in my life.

In December of 2006, I attended the weddings of two friends from this group. Their weddings were both beautiful and strangely impacted me unlike any I had attended before. I've been in and attended several weddings over the years, but something about these two was different. It's hard to completely explain, but while sitting through those services and listening to those vows, something changed inside me. Everything about my breakup and all the stress related to it was completely lifted from me. I felt very moved and decided that maybe this feeling was a sign of some sort.

The next month, January of 2007, I decided I'd return to church and give faith another try. Though I was somewhat resistant at first, I continued to be moved by the faith of those I was surrounding myself with. Over time I've grown deeper and deeper in my own faith and feel that I'm really changing my life around. Sometimes it's funny when I think that nearly a year ago I was a staunch agnostic, yet now I attend two different churches on Sundays and two different bible studies with other groups during the week. I still have a long way to come in my faith, but I'm convinced I'm on the right path.



The Political Beliefs:

I know this can be a sore subject for a lot of people, so I'll keep it pretty short. I'm registered "non-partisan", but I guess if you were going to pigeon hole me, you'd have to lump me in with the liberals. Over the years I've realized that I have a very strange political view. I've always held that you should separate your own personal beliefs and morals from your political views. That's not to say that you should betray your morals for the sake of politics, but I do believe that an election won over abortion rights and gay marriage is a false election.

When it comes to election time I always place a vote, but not for everything on the ballot. I believe that voting is important and your civic duty, but I believe that you should never cast a vote for something or someone until you fully understand (or at least think you do) the situation for which you're casting your vote. I'll read through all the propositions and bills, do a little research on the internet, and then decide. If I'm unsure, I'll just leave it blank. There's no point in guessing when we're talking about elections or passing things into Law.

I'm also not a huge proponent of War or the Death Penalty. I understand that War may sometimes be a necessary action, but "preemptive" war, by definition, is not necessary. That would be the equivalent of the government arresting people for crimes they have yet to commit. As for the Death Penalty, I do believe in justice and punishment. I do believe that if you commit unspeakable crimes against another, you deserve to have those unspeakable crimes committed against you, however, I'm unsure of how I feel about our government being granted that power and I question their current system of doing so.


The Education:

(coming soon)


The Employment History:

(coming soon)


The Personality:
(coming soon)

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