Thomas Colter:  

After high school, I was admitted to a school in Arkansas. After the first year, my grades were terrible so I decided to take a break from school. I had a rough but memorable summer that led to an enlistment in the Marine Corps. I joined the infantry and was able to serve in the Phillipines and Somalia. I met and married my wife while I was an instructor at the Marine Corps School of Infantry. In 1994 my wife and I had our first child (Joshua). I moved back to Connecticut in 1995 and worked as a maintenance man for a year. We had our second child in 1996 (Benjamin). Shortly after, we decided to move to Colorado where I worked as a highway construction foreman and we had our third child Grace (1997). In 1998, my family moved to Washington State where I went to community college and did odd jobs including delivering bottled water and working as a Barista. The following year my wife and I attended Washington State University. We attended the same classes, but alterna...Expand for more