Arron’s Blog

1. Too many people that I Love and care about have been (or are currently) homeless.

2. One of my good friends was shot twice last year (he did not die).

3. My senior year in High School I had planned on getting a four year degree in Theology, but ended up studying Cultural anthropology instead.

4. I grew up in Alaska on four acres of ocean front property in a beach house that I helped my Father and Grandfather build. We had an outhouse and no indoor plumbing. We took showers at the community Laundromat; and drove into town twice a week to refill twelve 6-gallon containers of potable water. We also had a ladder that came down into the middle of our living room, which allowed you to climb through a hatch that led to the second floor.

5. Once I got in trouble for using the family car to drop my baby sitter off.

6. I have been handcuffed by the police 3 times but only ever arrested once.

7. My Dad (who has a degree in Aerospace Astronautics and Aeronautics) grew up in a native village in rural Alaska. To this day you still can’t drive there (you have to take a boat or plane).

8. My Mom met my Dad in Alaska when she moved there to climb Denial (Mt. McKinley), the tallest mountain in North America.

9. Anthony Dimitire, Theron McCollough, Loren Castillo & Ji Lee are like my brothers; I love them to death. And, no matter how hard I try I can never get rid of them.

10. During summer break between 5th and 6th grade my sister and I traveled to Russia with my mother (who founded an international non-profit music festival). My mom was very busy that summer, so Haley and I used to sneak into an abandoned Russian amusement park and play on the broken-down rides with a bunch of other children (completely unsupervised).

11. I absolutely LOVE Snowboarding, the best trick that I used to be able to consistently land was a frontside 540 tail-grab.

12. I was snowbound without electricity for over a week in Girdwood, Alaska. The Governor declared it a state emergency. I ended up spending my 18th birthday sleeping on the floor of a high school gymnasium that had been retrofitted into an emergency shelter – it was one of the best weeks of my life!

13. I once cut an epidermal cyst out of my body — the procedure required a mirror, several cotton balls and a lot of hydrogen-peroxide (among other things). The next day I went to the doctor and requested some antibiotics. The doctor granted my request and told me that I actually hadn’t done that bad of a job removing the cyst.

14. Once during college the campus police put a boot on my Jeep because I had racked up too many parking violations. The cost to have the boot removed was $300. It was a Friday night and I did not have $300, so I started walking. On my walk I came across a youth group holding their weekly Friday night worship session. I observed them for a few minutes and then decided to keep walking, one of the guys in the group ran after me and asked where I was going. I told him that it was a long story, but he insisted that I explain. So I told him about the boot on my Jeep and me not having enough money to get it removed. He brought me back to the youth group and they took up a collection on the spot for $325. I told the youth leader that I did not deserve the money, to which he replied “You can never deserve Grace, that’s the point — you just have to be grateful. However, remember only Jesus can pay that big parking ticket in the sky!”

15. When I was 22 I bought a 5 bedroom house in an industrial zoned area. I rented the rooms to help pay the mortgage. The first person I rented to was a convicted felon, (both of his arms we’re also covered with tattoos) he taught me a lot about life — as did the two heroin addicts who later moved in.

16. 6 months after buying my first house, I co-invested in a second house with my buddy Loren. Except this house in was in a private gated community. A few months after the sale closed, our neighbors demanded that a tree on our side of the property line be removed. We had to get a permit from the “community” to cut the tree down, and then pay a tree removal expert $1200.

17. Loren and I could never stay out of trouble with the gated community’s private security force. (Once we got “pulled over” in a rented sailboat for sailing into the community port under sail power alone.) However, the officers were usually surprised to find-out that we were members of the community.

18. I eventually sold both houses and used the money to focus on an internet startup (much less risky).

19. In 2004 I lost almost 40 pounds in 72 days. Everyday I either ran a minimum of 5 miles or swam for one hour. I also lifted weights 3 days a week.

20. Until 6th grade I had the WORST hydrophobia (fear of water). Then one day I suddenly got over it, two days later I was jumping off the high dive.

21. The summer of 2000 I was 18 years old and making $1600 a week on a commercial fishing boat in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

22. Once while commercial fishing our boat responded to a distress call of another boat that was sinking in the middle of the night; myself and several other fisherman jumped on board the sinking boat and started to clear it’s deck. We were standing in water not quite up to our knees. We did everything we could until the Coast Guard showed up with a pump and pumped the water out of the sinking boat.

23. One of my life goals is to follow in my mom’s footsteps and start a nonprofit organization one day.

24. Growing up in Alaska, my buddies and I used to do a fair amount of back-country snowboarding. Once after a full day of hiking and snowboarding my car would not start. We were in  a mountain pass and it was starting to get dark and cold. We tried to fix the car for about an hour, but had to give up. My buddies started walking. I stayed behind and decided to say a small prayer. I then tried to start the car one more time — it started right up!

25. Sara Czyzewicz is the most important person in the entire universe, my life would be meaningless without her.