Aaron Collegeman

More detail to follow...

Who Do You Know?
Lens Gifting
Topics 2.0
Workshop Overhaul
Squid Quests
Lens Overhaul
The Great Kill List of 2011
Squidoo Redesign
The Dupe Checker
Magazines at Squidoo
Gift Guides
The Bug Box

Ha, ha. Very funny. Believe me, I've heard every version of this bad joke.

The truth is: I went to Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, VA. As their name implies, Lord Fairfax offers two-year associates degrees in just about anything. I chose Liberal Arts and spent five years earning that piece of paper, and a commencement ceremony I chose not to attend. The fact of the matter is that it's a pretty great place, with more than a couple of really great professors - the kind of teachers who are passionate about their subjects.

But my name - where did that come from? Well, frankly, we don't know! My father's family immigrated to the United States from somewhere in Eastern Europe. I used to tell people that "Collegeman" was an Ellis-island name change, but apparently, the frequency of that kind of change is mythical. One thing is for sure: it definitely wasn't "Collegeman" until they came here.

Now, here's where it gets a bit fuzzy for me. (I promise I'll iron this out as soon as I get a chance to talk to Dad and Grandma.) The picture is of my grandfather and great-grandfather, but I'm pretty sure my great-grandfather was the second-generation to live in the U.S., his father being the one who had a name that wasn't "Collegeman."

There aren't that many more Collegemans today. That I know of, there are 9 people who claim the name: my wife, my sister, my aunt and uncle and their two boys, my father, my daughter, and this guy, to whom I am not related (trying to figure this one out, too).

No, really.

Everywhere we go my daughter gives the biggest brightest smile to nearly everyone she meets. (Yeah, the homeless bloke on the Old Town mall today didn't get a smile, but he was scary!)

Isabela is the child I had given up on having. When I married my wife, she made it known there would be no children. Surprise, surprise: surprises happen. I'll never forget the night we found out we were pregnant - so much fear, hope, and joy, all wrapped into one, soppy ball of emotion.

If my wife is the center of my spiritual life, Isabela is the illumination. Through her I am constantly reminded that the world is and always will be a place of wonder, and that seeing a thing yields not nearly enough information about it: everything must be tasted, or in the very least, poked and prodded. Only then do you truly know what you're getting yourself into.

"I know Kung Fu." If only learning new things was as easy as inserting a giant electrode into the base of your skull.

Brevity being the soul of wit: I taught myself everything I needed to know - thanks in no small part to C|NET, upon whose work in the 90s I based most of my own - and I relied on a little help from my friends.

This process of building into oneself the skills needed for success is called bootstrapping, and challenges the conventional wisdom that tells us all that college is the gateway to a career. But all learning styles are different. The key to teaching yourself something new is to know yourself: how do you learn best, and what subjects stick? Above all, you must be interested in what it is you hope to master.

Mathematics and logic made a lot of sense to me, and here I am today: writing software for a leader among Web enterprises. By comparison it took me forever to crack into history and philosophy, and for these subjects I still prefer a lecture to all other forms of instruction.

But there are other keys to success: success in general, and my success specifically. It seems that for a number of years now, I've been pretty personable. This wasn't always the case: I used to be really shy, and I do still trend introvert. But it was my willingness to meet new people - and Corey Brown's willingness to do the same - that ultimately landed me my role with Squidoo.

For that reason, no matter how good you are at teaching yourself skills, you won't get far without learning to nurture relationships - this is a huge part of the value to be had from attending university, and something that was never well-explained to me in high school.