Just the Basics

Hi, my name is Christian Lasal and I am a freshman at Paul Smith’s College; majoring in Natural Resources Management and Policy. This blog came about as an assignment for my FYS (First Year Seminar) class, but who knows, maybe something more will come out of this blog. I guess I’ll start with the basics. I’m from a small town in Western New York, called Middleport. The town is located on the Erie Canal (it was just across the road from my high school) and is about forty minutes away from Buffalo and Niagara Falls. I was born with severe bilateral clubbed feet, which means that the bones in my feet are severely curved inward. In addition to this condition, because the bones turn inward, it wraps my leg muscles around by bones, which leaves them unable to grow; that combined with some unexplained nerve damage in my legs makes my legs and feet much weaker than those of the average person. I grew up all my life playing soccer until I was thirteen, when I had an additional surgery on my left foot. This surgery prompted me to explore other sports, because my feet were so weak and soccer became much more difficult to play. I quickly found basketball because a good number of my friends played, so I went to a few open gyms and the rest is history. Near the beginning of my junior year, I began an extreme workout program known as P90X. P90X focuses on everything from developing your arm strength, leg strength, abs and core strength, to your balance and flexibility. The program is so intense that many triathletes and marines can’t even do the workouts. The program is every day for ninety days, but I’ve completed the program twice, and on my third time, I didn’t stop and kept going for over 240 days, which brings me to the present.

         I plan on using this blog to share my experiences here at Paul Smith’s College with others. I also hope to be able to connect with others and learn more about other people along the way. I think that this blog should be an effective supplement to our classroom discussions because people usually don’t want to tell all about themselves in a discussion group, but with a blog we might be more apt to share information about ourselves.