From “Once upon a time,” to “Listen to this, boys,” I’ve always found myself babbling on and craving the attention of some sort of an audience.
Call me selfish or call me pompous, I just call myself a writer.
At 20 years old, I can’t seem to stay in one place, having lived in six different places since I was 16.
We could dive into every detail of the moves and aspirations of playing college hockey, but in reality, what I’ve gained is worth so much more than any scholarship.
The last four years have led me to five different teams and had me living with eight different families.
Through ups and downs and being all around, I have been molded into the person I am today, a writer.
Good grammar, and an endless supply of adjectives and verbs isn’t what made me enjoy putting pen to paper, instead it was the stories I’ve been told by grizzled team veterans as they passed the torch to me, creating my own adventures through saying yes instead of no.
The words I type are just phrases collected and carved over the years forcing me to look back and have a reason to remember Joshua Alexander, the Oklahoma City native who chose hockey over a full-ride chess scholarship.
Having lived in a busy house being the youngest of five, there were constant trips to the hockey rink, then to the soccer field, then back to the hockey rink.
There were panics from my mother, when she was missing her youngest in the food court at the mall, and there were laughs and snickers when the Wiffle ball hit dad in just the wrong spot.
Birthdays came and went along with the continuous flow of tales, some simple, just seemed meaningless at the time and some devastating when dad never got to teach me how to shave before leaving forever.
Every day an opportunity appears to live life and get something out of it.
It may not always be pretty or it may be unimaginably breathtaking, but my dream is to come away from that day with a reason to remember and knowing if I come home every day and can tell a story, that is a day well lived.

Jack Mueller, a native of Sandusky, Ohio, is an intern for The Clarkston News.