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Daniel Francis Trevisan
I'm the youngest of a litter of ten Irish-Italian Catholic ("no kidding?") dynamos. Five boys and five girls comprise this mob. Raised in Farmington Hills, I went to Catholic Central HS (yeah, parochial school boy, blah, blah, blah). Good time, that was. I learned concepts like what it was to have class and dignity. Only problem was, no women! Instead I focused on studies, performed well, and never had to shower one morning of my high school career. Graduated '93 in Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium. Cool ceremony. Unbeknownst to me ahead of time, my family was recognized with a few others because my dad, uncle, and three brothers all attended CC.
Went to CMU immediately following. Spent seven years there, the whole while fighting a burning desire to bail out and travel, move out west, snowboard . . . y'know, change the world. Needless to say, I stuck it out. Had good jobs in the summer - Ingle Landscaping (utter debauchery!), Titan Topsoil (see 938G), Motorless Motion Bike Shop (Mt. Pleasant). Ultimately, Titan ( www.titantopsoil.com ) really made my summers tolerable. They're family owned, honestly run, and good people to work for. I worked my tail off driving trucks 60+ hours a week, but I made great money at it and learned patience by getting paid to sit in Metro Detroit traffic during many rush hours in a dump truck with no air.
I was able to travel quite a bit during school. I took my first snowboarding trip to Crested Butte, CO Free Ski (yes, free!) during school (took two weeks off). My profs were definitely cooler than my dad about it. I turned twenty one out there, had a blast, and earned a 3.6 gpa that semester, much to the silence of my father :-)
I went out west the following four years after that, as well: Aspen, Grand Targhee (near Jackson, WY) x 3.
I student taught at Bloomfield Hills Andover and graduated from CMU's School of Ed. in 2000. In August, I accepted an offer from Fraser HS ( http://www.macomb.k12.mi.us/fraser/fhs/government.htm ). I was thinking, "Where the heck is Fraser?" When I found out what I had gotten into, I knew for sure that someone was looking out for me. This school is an awesome place to work! Administration is friendly, teachers are cool, and the kids are awesome! It's a good, stable, working class community.
Since then, I've been to Montana twice for a month during the summer. On those trips, it's been hiking, mountain biking, camping, kayaking, and general fun making. Titan always gave me hours around my trips to lighten the financial bite. Had some amazing experiences. This summer, no Montana. However, I did attend Burnignman, which was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I'll not bore you with explanations, nor will I ask you to take my word for it. Just believe that I'm a little more inspired than I was before, and I don't expect it to wear off. At least, I don't want it to. There you have it.

A Little History of the Family Behind the Man



I'm the youngest of a litter of ten Irish-Italian Catholic ("no kidding?") dynamos. Five boys and five girls comprise this mob. We do well as a family because we appreciate that our efforts to sow familial ties will always bear fruit. We lost our mother, Dad's first wife, in 1977 to a brain aneurism. About four years later, we were blessed by the marriage of Dad to Mary Lois DeJong (what is she, nuts?), a very sharp, pretty Dutch woman who made us whole and functional in so many ways. The elder sibs could focus more on careers, marriages, and children, at which all of them have seen much success. I'm sure that for a time, and even still, they were preoccupied in their own ways by the viability of "the nest". Mary made sure we, "the youngers", didn't kill ourselves or eachother. She read to us, made a great home, and bore the great emotional burden of succeeding a much loved mother of ten. Perhaps God's hand has never touched us more powerfully. Since then, Grandma has gone and 18 births have spawned the next generation. What an awesome crowd! Family gatherings are a veritable whirlwind! We are tradesman, doctors, students, teachers, volunteers, presidents, laborers, business owners, parents, children, nurses, patients, hygienists, gays, truck drivers, cosmotologists and the like. Our extended families represent a myriad of diversity and wonders.

Connections
There's an awesome group of people I get to call my friends. They embody ideals such as freedom, humor, loyalty and, most of all, good fun. I don't mean fun like happy hour at Bennigan's or fun like Top 40's night at a meat market. I mean fun that leaves as many decisions up to the participant as possible. For example, most of my friends would agree that a three day foray into the Montana wilderness with 20 kilos of gear (that's 40 lbs. for the lay folk) and a couple of people you're sure won't get you killed or get killed themselves is FUN. Most would agree that being outside during the winter and DOING SOMETHING is FUN. My best friend, Chris Nowak, is planning to rent a two lift ski resort in February for a day to throw a party. Yes, RENT one! You're thinking, "You can do that?" Answer? Would you like three DJ's or four? A bar at the top and bottom of the hill or one in the middle, too? Will the torches you carry at night last the whole ride down the hill?

Chris, along with myself and a few of my other friends, have come to the point where the question, "You can do that?" should no longer exist because, ultimately, YOU can do ANYTHING! And not despite authority or to prove something, either, so don't go thinking we're rebels without a cause. We are working toward the place in our lives where the wonders of the human spirit and the possibilities for unadulterated awe and beauty are what motivate our actions. We're beginning to see that life has become too comfortable for too many. Our society is full of very large cakes that no one eats and no one shares either! We are moving towards a more elevated focus on the celebration of what we have as a race. We feel that it is in this pursuit that we can also create the greatest good amidst our fellow humans and the portion of the universe in which we are lucky enough to exist. Confused? OK, add "Pay it Forward", "Fight Club", "The Matrix", any and all Warren Miller Films, "American Beauty", and maybe "Contact", and you might sum up a philosophy in the same galaxy with the one at which we're aspiring to arrive.

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