Mike Holicek:  

Life Married in 1992 to another Eisenhower grad, Lori Meinke. Two kids, Nick and Ben, ages 21 and 17. I currently work for one of Milwaukee's largest ad agencies, BVK, as a Creative Director. We've been living in New Berlin for 20 years. Previously I lived in Texas, having graduated from UT Austin in 1986 with a degree in Advertising. I'm a dieheard Packer fan with season tickets and love hanging out with my boys who are active in lots of sports. In 2003 my wife was diagnosed with late stage cancer. She went through chemo, radiation, and eventually had a radical hysterectomy. (But never lost her hair--the only break she caught.) She had a great doctor who probably saved her life. Luckily our kids were young enough that it didn't scare them too much. My job was maintaining normalcy around the house. I had it easy. Lori is clean after 13 years and gets a checkup once a year. It's definitely a life changer. And nothing I ever want to go through again. Life is good. College I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, a campus of 48,000 when I was there. I lucked into a school with a great ad program which helped start my career. Austin was a fantastic town to go to college in. The nightlife on 6th Street was a blast and other than having a crappy car and always being broke, it was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Workplace My first job was in Houston, Texas at the ripe old age of 15. We had just moved there a month earlier from Wisconsin and I guess I decided I was old enough to start earning some spending money. It was a steakhouse a few blocks from our house and it lasted about three weeks. I started as a busboy but when I found out I'd have to help wash dishes occasionally, that was it for the "Taste of Texas." Not having learned my lesson in the wonderful world of food service, I proceeded to spend the next year of my high school life at IHOP, also as a busboy but ultimately washing a few dishes along the way. I can still remember pointing out a cockroach in the orange juice machine to another teenage co-worker who advised me to keep my mouth shut. (Life lesson: pancake syrup stays on the skin for 2-3 days.) Life at IHOP was a sweaty existence with only free pancakes as a fringe benefit. I think I made $2.35 an hour. But I could bus a table in about 12 seconds flat. Unfortunately you can't put that on a resume. From there...Expand for more