I was finally “tagged” on Facebook to provide a list of “25 Random Things about Me,” and, despite my concerns that this is some huge social engineering experiment by some very clever hackers, I have decided to participate.
However, I will go one step further and, because I am posting this on my 35th birthday, have decided to provide a list of “35 Random Things about Me.”
I am unsure if I am interesting enough to warrant the extra ten items, but here goes:
1. According to the website HowManyofMe.com there are 453 people named “Matthew Gilbert” in the United States – one of them actually lives in Santa Clarita. Other “Matthew Gilberts” include the entertainment writer for the Boston Globe and a frighteningly “emo” singer/songwriter. There is also a “Matthew Gilbert” middle school in Jacksonville, Florida.
2. Speaking of names, Gilbert is not the last name I was born and grew up with: I legally changed it during my senior year in college to honor my Maternal Grandfather (and to distance myself from my father from whom I have been estranged since 1994).
3. My Grandfather had such a huge impact on my life that I made him the Best Man at my wedding.
4. Three days before my Grandfather died in 2006, after he had slipped into a coma, I was 350 miles away at home. I was sitting on my couch and distinctly smelled Aqua Velva – the after shave he always used. To this day I think it was him “saying” goodbye to me.
5. I was born in Boston, grew up near San Francisco and now live in the greater Los Angeles area, but I still identify with my New England roots and am a fan of the professional sports teams from that region (Go Patriots, Go Red Sox, Go Celtics).
6. Prior to the Patriots dramatic victory in SuperBowl 36 I was in a “sports coma” (although as a kid I was a 49ers fan and now consider them my second favorite team). My wife, Heather, still cannot understand exactly why I suddenly became obsessed with football and other sports. HD television and earning an MBA – which allowed me to understand team sports from the perspective of management and leadership – are partially to blame.
7. Growing up, the three people not related to me who had the most impact on my life were Joe Montana, Huey Lewis and Marty McFly. I took guitar lessons as a direct result of Huey Lewis and Marty McFly. I couldn’t really play guitar “back then” and I definitely can’t play now.
8. I am intrigued with the theory of time travel and would love to observe historical events in person and see what happens in the future. Maybe I would also try to recreate the 90s show Quantum Leap and “set right what once went wrong.”
9. After I saw “Top Gun” I wanted to become a naval aviator, but I had three things working against me: I am nearly legally blind, I get seasick, and I don’t take orders very well.
10. I also liked “Iron Eagle.” I first saw it with Jason Prystowsky, his Dad, Steven, and some other friends of his. At one point during the drive home Jason’s Dad floored the gas pedal in the car and yelled out “I’m an Iron Eagle!”
11. Speaking of Jason Prystowsky’s Dad again: As a kid I had a birthmark on my chin, but because it was not malignant, Kaiser (my health insurance company at the time), would not remove it. Dr. Prystowsky saved my vanity with some local anesthetic and a quick slice of a scalpel.
12. In the spirit of my aviation infatuation, the “theme” to my 1987 Bar Mitzvah party was “airplanes.” At that point I had made nearly two dozen model airplanes and a different plane was used as the center piece of each table. I also had a life-sized cardboard cutout picture of myself in a flight suit and helmet that people signed as they entered the room.
13. On a related note, ever since I can remember I have dreamed of flying. Once I experienced a “lucid dream” and remember saying “if this is a dream I should be able to fly.” Just as I said that the walls in the room I was in fell aside and I began to fly. Unfortunately I crash landed a few moments later into a garbage truck. Anyone have an interpretation?
14. I am not a comic book geek in the classic sense, but have had a lifelong love of “Superman.” I have now passed that appreciation down to my sons, Jacob and Max. I’ve been watching Smallville since it began and consider Tom Welling a worthy heir to the throne first occupied by Christopher Reeve. Don’t get me started about Superman Returns.
15. I traveled to Israel in the summer of 1990 with a group of 50 16 year olds. We spent six weeks touring the entire country from the Golan Heights in the North to Eilat in the South. It was a life changing experience and, interestingly, we left Israel for home on August 2, 1990 — the day Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait (we learned about it when we landed in New York).
16. While in Israel I got my left ear pierced, as did most of the guys on the trip. I recall my exact words when I had it done were “Bitchin!” I haven’t actually worn an earring since approximately 1991, but the hole never really closed up.
17. I was in the best shape of my life when I returned from Israel: we hiked everywhere and even walked through the Judean Desert from Jerusalem to Ein Gedi.
18. I was selected as Editor in Chief of my high school newspaper, The Wolf Print, for my junior year. However, I learned just before school started that the District was cutting the paper due to budget shortages. So, with the help of Ben Samrick and others on that year’s staff, we raised enough money at registration to pay a significant enough portion of the teacher’s salary to convince the District to rescind its earlier decision.
19. I applied to UC Santa Barbara upon the advice of my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Calvert, whose son Todd had gone there a few years earlier.
20. I was actively involved in Hillel at UC Santa Barbara and once participated in the holiday of Shavuot which commemorates when Moses received the Torah. To celebrate this event we stayed up all night reading and discussing the Torah. Then, in the morning, we all went for a swim in the Pacific Ocean at Goleta Beach.
21. When I was at UCSB I helped start a chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity. I served as the Chapter Secretary and in various other roles, but found my greatest joy when guiding the Ritual services as Chaplain. I even got to wear a red robe with a cross on it – and I called myself the “Jewish Chaplain.” I recruited Joel Wilde to succeed me as the next “Jewish Chaplain,” but sadly that legacy ended with his term.
22. I served on the staff of the UCSB yearbook, La Cumbre, for two years: one year as Copy Editor and the next year as Greek’s Section editor. I won a Gold Circle Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in each of those two years.
23. I applied to and began my undergraduate experience at UCSB as a Communication major, but changed to English after the first quarter. Now I want to get a PhD in Communication so I can research the impact of social media on the management and marketing of knowledge. Go figure.
24. Between AP units and clever petitioning, I finished UCSB one quarter earlier, but have regretted doing so ever since. Can I get those three months back somehow?
25. I applied to give a speech at my UCSB graduation ceremony and came in second – so I was asked to be the “Commencement Bearer” for the College of Letters and Science ceremony which meant I lead the procession of graduates into the ceremony.
26. I earned an MBA nine years after graduating from UCSB and learned to leverage my writing skills and BA in English with the business curriculum: the result was publishing eleven scholarly papers and presenting nine of them at academic conferences from Hawaii to Pittsburgh.
27. I’ve never broken any bones or been admitted to a hospital but, as Billy Crystal jokes in one of his routines, I did have “a procedure” in my 30s.
28. On my birthday in 2006 my youngest son, Max, then just a month old, stopped breathing, went limp and turned lifeless. I gave him CPR while Heather called 9-1-1 and, by some miracle, he decided to rejoin us. I still get shivers when I think of this incident.
29. Due to the event mentioned above and several related incidents, 2006 was the hardest year of my life. I jokingly call it “two thousand sucks.” The three years following it have also been more challenging than I could have ever imagined. That said, I feel the experience helped me discover my true self and reset me back onto a personal and professional path that will ultimately lead to a happier life.
30. I have been on three Game Shows: “Winning Lines” (2000), “On the Cover” (2004) and “Trivial Pursuit: America Plays” (2008). I won the grand prize on “On the Cover,” which was a Caribbean cruise, but could never use it. I did, however, use the airfare that came with the trip to go to an academic conference – so I got something out of it.
31. In the summer of 2008 I flew to Las Vegas and sat on the floor all night in a Casino to try out for “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (I was 12th in line out of the maximum 1,500 that were allowed to audition). I was one of 10% who passed the test, but was not chosen to appear on the show. I am now more determined than ever to get on the show.
32. According to StrengthsFinder, my top five strengths are: Learner, Strategic, Input, Intellection, and Relator. This one test was THE tipping point in my realization that a career in academia was my calling (well, I should say it was the smack in the face that finally made me acknowledge what I had either ignored or somehow missed up until that point).
33. I started my career in “academia” on September 2, 2006 when I taught the first of 15 traffic school classes. As strange as it sounds, I actually enjoyed and learned a great deal from this experience. I would do it again if the pay was better!
34. I have been working as a “full-time part-time teacher” (adjunct) since October 2007 when I started teaching at the DeVry University in Bakersfield, CA. I have since added several additional schools to my resume and, at any given moment, might be juggling some combination of as many as six to twelve online and traditional classes. There was one month where I was driving between 800 and 900 miles per week. Good thing I don’t need much sleep!
35. I am in awe of how far my boys, Jacob and Max, have come and how gracefully they have both overcome different obstacles in their lives. They inspire me to be a better person and each day I try to do better than I did the day before.
