Craig Engel:  

Life is GOOD. After H.S., I worked briefly in various ridiculous jobs before joining the navy and seeing the world. Uncle Sam turned out to be my most supportive relative. Uncle made a man out of me and helped me to discover who I was–fathom that! High school was a slog for me–never felt comfortable there. Didn't bother to take the ACT or SAT tests, figuring college was not in the cards for me either. It was after graduating that things started coming together. I went from being an oblivious dope to being an enlightened dope through assignments to various naval special forces groups--MIUW, MDSU, SpecWar & SEALs. I learned about what makes people and the world tick, a years-in-the-making life lesson few people ever enjoy. A free education helped too. I reasoned that since I had the opportunity, I should try college (enlightenment was seeping in through the cracks in my thick skull)--so my Educational Service Officer said I need to take an ACT to find out what I knew (I could have made it easy and said, "not much"). OK, I thought, but what's an ACT? "An entrance test for college admission" I was told icily--the context of which was: "Engel--you are a true dumb ass." Which alas, I was. So I show up to take my ACT without a second of studying, on about four hours of sleep, and still fairly woozy from a night of trouble in Coconut Grove with the boys. Needless to say, I was NOT happy when I found this was not a 30-minute test. I took the test & forgot about it. A few weeks later, colleges were calling incessantly wondering why I wasn't enrolled there. One said, "You scored a 28 on your ACT." "Sorry," I replied,"bad score, huh?" On the contrary, I was told it was a high score, and that I scored so well totally hung-over meant that I actually had some seriously well-functioning gray matter. I went on to CLEP out of scores of classes. WOW--I went completely through the cracks in HS, and no one ever knew who or what I was capable of...not even me. Tried marriage, and that produced two beautiful daughters. The union was not meant to be though, and I divorced in 1994. The ensuing years taught me much, as I started an advertising firm, and was a dedicated single dad. My one passion during my HS years was art, in any form. Loved sports too, but appreciation of the arts really fueled me through my tough HS years. And that passion led me back to the arts. While living in Miami, I was discovered by ...Expand for more