It's Big OB [Age 17-22]

Ah, the images of pure guilt...

Check me out, gettin' my dee-ploma. DeKalb High School, June '92. I even got the "coveted" Indiana Academic Honors Diploma (but technically didn't deserve it! I'm sneaky like that. Don't tell anybody, k?) I still had mondo hair and (*gasp*) braces back then. Ack. My old neighbor Jerry Durst (school board member) is handing it to me. Our class motto (as partially seen on the banner) was : "If we cannot find the road to success, we will make one." Hehe... nice. We had a petition going around for "So Be It." It didn't happen, though

From the same reel of film that produced the "OB's Photo Album" cover shot, Stan shot this in '93 I think. I was getting all serious and looking like I was a bad-ass. Did it work? You make the call. The black and white film makes my car look "badder" though. Daisy in the house, once again!

Speaking of Stan, I used to cut his hair all the time during our senior year... and this was my Mona Lisa... the '92 cut for graduation. I took both the photos, June '92. WAY back in the day...

This is the original Purdue ID card that was issued to me my freshman year (photo taken 7/92). Whoa! Scary, eh? What the hell is UP with that hair? Hmm... I actually lost this damn thing sometime around '94 or so. I had to get a new one! ...which is right here:

I look like I'm on some form of amphetimine but I swear, I'm not! And of course, I found the original ID later... three years later! Amazing, eh? The stupid piece of crap was lost in space for over 3 years... and then it magically appeared. Still got it, too.

Here I am, with Robby G - riding the Magnum at Cedar Point for the first and last time. Just wanted to document it to prove that I actually rode it. With my bony-ass elbows. This was summer of '93. Brian and Dave were right behind us.

While at Purdue, I volunteered for a children's Christmas party at Wiley Hall (junior year '94), where we all got paired up with a child. I swear it wasn't pre-planned! But he looks like my kid brother, eh? Heh. He's the raddest little kid I ever met. His name is Nicholas. Sure, he hauled ass down the hall when it was story-time. But how do you make a kid go back to the story when he says "no, thank you" after you ask him? He got a Mighty Morphin Lite-Brite from Santa, but traded his pal Jeremy for his Batmobile! (What a deal!)

My girlfriend-at-the-time Tina took all of these pictures that show off my charming smirk ability. They are all circa '93-'94. OB in mack-daddy mode.

This is an estimated guess, but I started at the Ft. Wayne zoo in my first zoo job in 1994, and I think this was taken when I started. It could have been anytime later from '94-'97. Zookeeper newbie.

Chillin' wit my bald head and my Aunt Kathy in my driveway, 1995.

Apparently I should be calling this "OB's Photo-ID Page"... but here's my old driver's license. I just thought it would be interesting to see the range of one person's photogenicity. I swear, even though it looks like I'm in a pimp-lean to the side, it was unintentional!

This is my dad and I loungin' on the couches on the porch of the house I lived in my senior year at Purdue. The infamous 453 Vine Street house.

Here's a shot of my gerbil jungle in '96, also in the Vine Street crib. This was right before I moved back home... and about as large as the colony got, which was around 10.

These were the official Purdue photos, the left of which appeared in the 1996 Purdue Debris (yearbook with senior photos). Mom made me promise to have some hair, and this was as much as I could muster. I should have either started a year earlier or kept it clean. Those "graduation clothes" and the "degree" are disgustingly fake. Taken fall of 1995.

This is my Purdue graduation picture, May '96. There are a couple reasons why I'm so happy. When I finally got up there, the guy looks at me, looks at the degree in his hand, looks at me and says "Well, you're not Jennifer"... so I said "um, nope!" And then he grabs the next one and says "Jason?" Um... try again! He finally just asked me my name and I got my degree. Whew! I also had snuck in a frisbee under my robe (it's tucked under my left armpit in the picture) so I could have something to do when I got the degree. So I walked to the center of the stage and tossed that sucker over the crowd... it was a helluva throw, too, I might add. My mom sure enjoyed it

I am not a hitman, really! I think I look like I just killed someone... but I was just cold and not in the Kodak-Moment mood. Heh. Erin took this one on campus at Purdue near the Loeb fountain around April '97. I don't know what she was thinking... Dig the green hoodie.

Go on to part two!