Life Story

This is my life story.

Buckle up.
You’re about to learn way too much information.

1997

I was born on Wednesday, February 19th, 1997.
My father is Joseph Grisham and my mother is Tammy Aubin.

My sister is Meghan Aubin.

She was born a year and three days before me.
Birthdays were ‘fun’.

1998

My parents divorced. Eh.
They both seem far happier now.
I’m glad they found better partners.

1999

My parents split custody.

Dad lived in Long Beach, Mississippi,
then moved to Pass Christian, Mississippi.

Mom lived in Gulfport, Mississippi.

I think I was walking by now.

Early 2000’s

I was obsessed with Barney.

Kindergarten was neat.
Nap time was awful.
Went to Reeves Elementary.

My father got married to Chrissy Buza on February 3rd, 2002.

Spent weekdays with my dad.
Weekends were spent with my mom.

My grandparents lived in Gulfport, MS (Mom’s) and Pensacola, FL (Stepmom’s).
My father’s parents lived in Texas.

Me and my sister fought like water and oil.

I was a voracious reader.
Harry Potter was my main obsession.
Goosebumps, Molly Moon, Roald Dahl and other child fiction kept my interest.

2005

I started third grade at Anniston Avenue Elementary.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed my father’s house.
My mother’s home was flooded.

We stayed in Pensacola Florida for three months.
It was a stressful time but we were all safe.

2006

My mother lived in a FEMA trailer near her mother’s house in Gulfport.
My father also got a FEMA trailer and lived in Long Beach.

It wasn’t the best experience, but my sister and I got to be in a music video. (2:49 – 2:55)

I wound up swapping schools three times that year.
Reeves Elementary was where I wound up returning.

2007

My father got a job at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Mobile, AL.

We moved to 2994 Bel Air Blvd, Mobile, Alabama.
It was an apartment he rented with his friend.

Here is a picture of that apartment.

It was cramped. I loved it.

While we were living in Mobile, my father and stepmother drove me and my sister 24 miles
across the Mobile Bridge to go to Daphne East Elementary every school day for almost a year. 

I enjoyed school.
I worked in my elementary and middle school library.
This helped me gain the trust of most of my teachers.

2008

My father got an apartment in Daphne, AL.

My Dad got me Kingdom Hearts II and some toys for Christmas.
This was also when I got regularly terrible haircuts.

2009

My dad vehemently tried to get me interested in sports.
I never did.
My sister was the jock.

I spent a few years playing Football, Soccer (2 years), and Baseball.

Was never good (period), but it kept me in decent shape as a kid.

2010

My father got offered a job at Fresenius Medical Care.
This allowed him to build a house in Daphne, AL in 2011.

I began focusing on my YouTube channel.
Me and some middle school friends competed for views.
I managed to become a YouTube partner.

2012

My teenage years were weird.
I got braces and grew my hair out.
Played far too much Minecraft.

2014

My weight became locked at 120 pounds.
I ran a Garry’s Mod server.

I only had a few friends.

Only went on one date in High School.

My friend Gerald Lawson got me a job at a hotel.
It was my second job.

I looked ridiculous.

2015

‘Officially’ graduated Daphne High School in May of 2015.

Due to boredom, I graduated early in December of 2014 and worked at the hotel until the May ceremony.

Started attending Mississippi State University in the fall semester.

2016

Finished my freshman year at Mississippi State University.


Got a job at Pita Pit to make rent money.
Swapped to a movie theater job for the summer.

Went to Bonnaroo in June. Had a great time at the concerts.
Body-slammed a bag of popcorn in my sleep.

I withdrew from college in the fall due to out-of state tuition costs.
My parents were rightfully pissed. I didn’t consult them first.

Managed to get a interview at Adult Swim in November.

Got into a car accident on my way back from Atlanta.

Totaled my car and broke my arm.

Metal bar now fused to bone. I’m 1% Wolverine.

Physical therapy only took a month.
I healed quickly and got full rotation back.

2017

Shaved my head for my 20th birthday.
Wanted to do something unique.
It was a bad call.

Took the ASVAB. Got a 73.
Couldn’t enlist due to surgery.

Found a job as a prep cook at Harvey’s in February.
Worked there until August.

Completed my lease and moved in with my mother.
It wasn’t a positive moment in my life.

Set up a Spirit Halloween and worked there for two months.

Got a stable job at Cinemark in December.

2018

Worked at the movie theater until August.

I was an elevator operator for a month in Texas.
Worked at a power plant during a shut-down.
Listened to audio-books and became claustrophobic.

Had a great view though.
~160 hours in three weeks.

Returned to Mississippi State in the fall.
As an in-state student, the costs were far better.

Volunteered as University Liaison for MSU Spectrum.
It was the LGBTQ+ support group on campus.

Held the council position my sophomore year.

Got a staff writing job for my school paper.

Wrote over 20 articles my sophomore year.

2019

Started learning how to play piano.

My articles won a few awards. Extremely proud about that.

Got an editor position for my school paper.

I became the Online Editor.
My job became running their website and social media.

Took summer classes to get myself ahead in my studies.

Wrote the first draft of my first novel. 89k words.

My sister got engaged.

Auditioned and joined an improv comedy troupe.

Started performing stand-up comedy.

2020

Became the web-master for the comedy group’s website. Updated it and made it look pretty.

Performed undergraduate research scrubbing Reddit data and analyzing trends.

Won a national award for my work on my school paper’s website.

I published my first novel in May of 2020.

It’s a YA fantasy drama complete at 88,000 words (~320 pages).

Graduated with honors from Mississippi State University.

Bachelors of Science in Business Information Systems.

Renovated a 33′ camper and lived in it for a six months.

Got a job as the Online Network Manager at Emmerich Newspapers.

I manage 20+ websites for news publications spread across Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.

2021

Continued my first year post-college: Learned Drupal, MailChimp, Google Analytics, JIRA, NewRelic, Data Analysis tracking measures, etc.

Managed 22 active news publication websites – Assisted with the migration of two new websites into a CMS.

Cross-posted ~ 2,500 unique articles across a statewide news network (everything from political coverage to state affairs).

Moved into an apartment in Jackson.

Adopted a kitten – her name is Ptolemy.

Wrote a 75k manuscript for my second novel, Note to Self.

Started playing Dungeons and Dragons (regularly, not one-off campaigns).

Published my second novel, Note to Self, on December 12, 2021.

Completed an entire year of DAILY posts to my website (all 365+ posts are songs that I enjoy).

2022

Started work on a serial novel (my third novel project).
Also created a pseudonym for experimental writing.

On my birthday I reached a quarter-of-a-century old (over 9,131 days).

Work went well this year.
I passed over 500 full-days at my position, and I spearheaded a large number of development projects.

My cat Ptolemy got bigger.

She is a rambunctious little trouble-maker and I love her very much.

Just about every weekend I played board games with a group of friends.
We would order pizza, bicker about pop-culture and enjoy each other’s company.

The usual games to play were Catan, Cyclades, Munchkin, Ticket to Ride, Poyo-Poyo Tetris, and Jackbox titles.  

I fixed a few things over the year, like: my car-door, my keyboard, old studio-headphones, and a Nintendo Switch.

I decorated my apartment with (used) furniture.

Got a recliner, some chalkboards/whiteboards, a desk chair, various artwork/paintings, and some bookshelves.

I dated someone for a while.
Worked on my car a bit. Grew a beard for about 3-months.

Went to the 2022 SMA Pre-Doctoral Consortium in October (Little Rock, AR).

Studied for the GRE and applied to Grad School.

Joined a new improv troupe in Jackson, MS in late September.

It has been fun performing, helped with my social life, and introduced me to some new friends.

I completed a year-long DnD campaign in October.
Owen Blair was a level-16 Wizard who defeated a lich in the Shaddowfell.

Read >15 novels this year (started reading the Game of Thrones series).

Built a new PC (after upgrading and selling my old 2012 build).
My specs are nothing outlandish, but more than adequate to handle the next few years without any new upgrades.

Shucked an external hard-drive and digitized my entire DVD/Blu-Ray collection.

Have everything hosted on a local Jellyfin instance (and I plan to build a NAS/Home Server next year).

I added over 120 new posts to my website this year, reaching over 500+ posts about music.

Hopefully you enjoyed reading my life story (so far).

The whole point of a life story is that the life story is interesting.
I doubt that mine was.

Click to go home.