Every endeavor needs a beginning, for the purpose of this blog this is its beginning. My name is Mitchell Colbert, I'm an undergraduate student at San Jose State University, and I am a political science major. This is not my first blog, though hopefully it will be my last. I began blogging years ago on Livejournal, back when it was merely trendy, before the breakwater of becoming obscenely popular. I have since deleted my Livejournal accounts, no one deserves the misfortune of reading my teenage angst.
Enough about my teenage years, they're only purpose was to act as a hibernation period for me, a period where I wasn't the happiest person, but I was quite productive with school, which is what matters more now. Five years from now, I will probably be saying the same thing about now, everything I do today is preparation for the rest of my life. "What do you want to do with your life?" I get asked that question a lot, and I have a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is that I want to be President of the United States. The long answer begins with that, then elaborates on my plan for how I will get to there. I am not so naive that I believe one can simply wish to occupy the highest office of the land and have it be so, it takes work, and years of preparation. It takes the right personal connections, the right background, the right personality, and these are things that take a lifetime to create. That's not to say that everything I do today is a calculated ploy to become President. What I am saying is that I, unlike many of my peers, understand discretion, and I understand that what I do today can blacklist me in the future. (Case in point, kids who cheat to get into law school, hardly ever get there.)
So who is Mitchell Colbert? To begin, he is not Mitchell Colbert, the "T" is silent, think Steven Colbert. For my whole life my dad had always claimed, "It's Colbert, a good American name." He stubbornly still uses that mispronunciation, even though I have gone to the French pronunciation. I have inherited much of his stubbornness, many might view this as a bad thing, I feel it's a useful trait, as long as I recognize when I am being unreasonable, which I generally can. My father is much older than my mother, a generation older. My father was born in the mid 30s, as part of the Great Generation, and he still remembers WWII. I've always had a fascination with WWII which probably originated from his stories of growing up and going to school during that time. My mother was born in the mid 50s, as part of the Baby Boomer generation, she's a very goal driven woman, and a very hard worker, I have inherited these traits from her. She also is a loving parent, and we used to go on hikes all around Marin County, where I was raised. My mother also is a practicing Nichiren Buddhist and raised me as a Buddhist, though currently I am not practicing, though I still consider myself Buddhist. My parents are divorced now, as many others are around the country, it came as no surprise and they are both still amicable to each other, something not so common after a divorce.
That sums up my upbringing, now to move on to my school years. I always have done well in school, I was in a private school for kindergarten and first grade, which I feel helped put me ahead of the curve. When my family moved from San Rafael to Novato I switched into public school, and because of my December birthday I was forced to repeat the first grade. Grade school was of little consequence, my school was very well funded which allowed us to go on dozens of field trips, have a music program, and have good teachers. I was very grateful for all that, especially the music program, since I went on to play the tenor saxophone all through middle school and highschool, until getting my CHSPE and going on to college at 15 and a half. Middle school was hard for me, I was bullied severely, called a great number of things relating to my "gayness", and hit a few times (never beaten up, I tended to fight back). Ironically, I have not, nor do I think I ever will be gay, currently I am quite happy with a lovely Biochem major at UCSC. But that was middle school in Suburbia for you, kids didn't know shit and they were cruel heartless bastards. In Suburbia everything is a pseudo self, the "sluttly girls" didn't actually have any sex, only the illusion of sex. The "Gangstas" had probably never even been to a real ghetto. The "Goths," which I frequented, had no concept of what goth was, all they did was shop at hot topic and whine. The only real people I found in Suburbia were the nerds, the people I truely identified with, me and my friends were the future Bill Gates of Novato.
After my freshman year of highschool my parents divorced, and I moved down to Santa Cruz with my mother. I began doing independant study, and going to Cabrillo College, taking German for my highschool language requirement. I love the German language, and went to the country for a couple weeks when I was 16, which I still treasure. I got my CHSPE after a semester or two at Cabrillo, but continued with my independant study, and got my actual diploma at the end of my Junior year of highschool. Then I was officially in college. College for me as been a lot of change, changing schools, changing cities, and changing majors. I've ping ponged around the bay, majoring in Creative Writing, Psychology, Digital Photograpy, Marketing, and finally Political Science. (That's just my majors, I've dabbled in far more than that.)
That's most of the important facets of my life up to this point, at least academically/socially. There are countless more stories to be told, but they will be saved for another day. For now, let me bounce back to the topic of this blog. You are best to notice as soon as possible, I tend to write free-flow and just let the words come out, sometimes I tend to return to previous topics, circling around in somewhat chaotic but logical leaps. It's a quirk of mine. Expect this blog to be updated at least once a week, though probably more likely to be updated once every day or so.
