There were three boys in my family and of the three I was both the youngest and the least good looking when we were growing up. We each had our role within our family. Greg was the good looking one, I was the smart one and Jimmy got all the girls!

My brother Greg was 6'1", 200 pounds and looked a little like Tom Selleck. My brother Jimmy was 5'9", 175 pounds with blue eyes and long blond curly hair like Peter Framptom (trust me back in the 70's girls liked guys with Frampton hair!). Both of them were great athletes, especially Jimmy who was a baseball and track star. And then there was me. My senior year of high school (1983) I was 5'9", 120 pounds with brown eyes, brown hair and a cheesy mustache. The photo to the right is my driver's license photo from when I was 19. As you can probably guess my nickname was "Guido"!

In my family I was the smallest, the weakest, the least attractive, the least athletic, and the slowest. Except for academics, where I excelled, I was always behind my brothers. Want some examples? I didn't learn to tie my shoes until I was 6 (mostly because all the lefthanders in my family tried to teach me), I didn't learn to ride a bicycle until I was 12 (mostly because I didn't get one until I was 12!) and I didn't learn how to swim (other than doggy paddling) until I was 22! Even my academics faltered when I hit adolescence and between the ages of 13-20 I was a lousy student, although I still managed to score through the roof on standardized tests.

The summer before my Junior year of college I decided it was time to make some changes. I shaved off my mustache, got a decent haircut and more importantly decided I was actually going to make an effort to get good grades for the first time in eight years. My first two years of college I had a 2.3 GPA, which is basically a C. My last two years of college I took high level courses and had a 3.75 GPA (out of a possible 4.0). At the age of 20 my life finally began.

I spent the first twenty years of my life wondering if I was good enough, handsome enough, strong enough, but I've spent the last 20 years believing in myself and that has made all the difference. It hasn't always been easy and I'm still insecure over certain things, particularly my looks, but today both Greg & Jimmy are 40-50 pounds overweight, so by default I'm now the good looking one! And even though I know it's shallow, I'm enjoying the hell out of my new status!

So if any scrawny 120 pound, 18 year old geek is reading this post, let me tell you something. In life it's better to be a late bloomer than to peak when you're in high school. As far as I'm concerned I'll hit my peak the second before I die and not a moment before!