WHO AM I?
I am a husband & a friend to Heather, father to Hannah & Connor, a basketball player by heart, an amateur musicologist by hobby, and a communication designer by trade.
My name is Shane Michael Guymon at least that's what it says on my birth certificate, and Drivers License. My mom has been heard calling me Shaney. When I was younger I used to ask her to call me her little Darling. My sister referred to me as "It" and "squeaky bones." My brother Mark called me spleen, until the next time I saw him and everyone he knew including himself were calling me Skillz (I couldn't help but suppose there was some sort of "sarcasm" behind it all)! Next thing I knew my brother Matt flipped that into Spillz, which caught on well enough that this kid named Chris Capps called me that on the way home from Basketball practice, but he wasn't to happy when I called him "Pissin Craps" after that. In Brazil I became a "Greengo" either that or some other mispronunciation of my last name. I grew up a loser striving to become a winner. In Jr. High BJ Pratt called me the "White Somalian." In High School he started saying Shane "The Main Man" Guymon. Mexicans (hispanics) call me Chain. Then that reminds me of all the times Matt called me Stain. A few people through my life have called me a Nerd. A few other people have referred to me as a Friend. Through my life I have grown accustomed to responding to the name Shawn. I even turn my head when people call out the name Matt (since all my life people have thought we were twins). So I guess if I was to introduce myself I would say you can go ahead and start off by calling me Shane, then you can move on from there...
WHY DO I DO WHAT I DO?
If I enjoyed training overweight squirrels how to sumo-wrestle than that is what I would be doing, simply put I do what I do because I enjoy it.
WHO IS MY CURRENT EMPLOYER?
I am currently employed by these guys, who specialize in dental marketing, and often times I'm collaborating with this guy.
THE HISTORY
SO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE ENTIRE STORY?
I was born in San Antonio, Texas and grew up in Live Oak in a humble three bedroom home, to a family of eight. Growing up in such humble living conditions made it to where my family became very close. I spent most of my childhood in a room with my other three brothers. My childhood was spent playing basketball, riding bikes, and pretending I was Zorro, a ninja turtle, Heeman, a transformer, the Lone Ranger, or a specially trained ninja killer ( I am pretty sure that my techniques are still harnessed inside my 150 pound 5 foot 9 inch frame (Now I weigh around 170)). If I was not outside using my imagination to its fullest extent, I could be found inside of my house playing with legos, trying to build a clubhouse, building a car out of scraps of wood and other odd things I found around the house and neighborhood.
I learned the truth about Santa Clause at the startling age of three and Christmas remains to be my favorite holiday to this day. Second would have to be Halloween. I think we should rename it to be the national hook-up day because no other day out of the year can you knock on a complete strangers door and they will give you free candy and other goodies for no reason; THAT my friend is a beautiful thing. I started kindergarten at the age of five.
Thanks to the beauty of education, I was able to learn how to play with blocks, sit Indian style, stay within the lines as I colored, and best of all, I learned about the beauty of recess. As I ventured up the ladder of public education via Live Oak Elementary, I ran into a huge obstacle; the first day of first grade when handed a worksheet filled with questions. My only problem was I had no idea how to read. I was scared I was the only one and so therefore I just sat and stared at this paper that filled my young mind with confusion. Luckily I was able to receive some good help in a remedial course where I learned the history of many characters such as A-E-I-O-U and sometimes Y. However, my favorite story was "Q" because poor "Q" could not speak until his friend "U" was with him. Anyway, I hit third grade as the coolest kid alive, not to mention the greatest basketball player in Live Oak Elementary history, but my poor teacher didn't receive the memo and thus spent the whole school year hating me. So in the fourth grade I became the new kid in school a few blocks away at Crestview Elementary. It was hard at first to convince the school that I was the coolest kid alive. I mean, it was not hard to tell that by the faded tight black sweats I wore everyday.
Before I knew it I had to retire as the four square champ and tether ball king. Oh, and not to mention the pencil fighting champ. It was time to move on to Jr. High! Once there, I was able to showcase my talents on the hardwood. Only Kitty Hawk's court was made of tile. I still mad the A-team both my seventh and eighth grade years which secured me a spot in basketball athletics at Judson High school. Kitty Hawk was where all the girls finally started realizing how incredibly cool I was. Too bad I was too scared to speak to any of them.
Judson High school was where I was finally able to let the world know that I was the greatest basketball player in the world and quickly on my way to the University of North Carolina and then on to the NBA. Sadly, Coach Wacker didn't ever get new glasses so he was never able to see my talent. So I spent my freshman year on the A-team coming in off the bench as the three point sharp shooter. In basketball athletics I spent the year holding it down proper on the top court where me, Lloyd, Walter, Joe, and Mark Bennet ran things all day. Anyway I found myself looked over going into my sophomore year and not making the J. V. team. Stuck on sub-varsity, I came out with a bang scoring twenty one points my first game and twenty five my next and securing a place on the bench on J.V for the remainder of the preseason. At that point I played sub-varsity and J.V. games until I failed Spanish and didn't play on any team for the rest of the year. Again I went into my junior year almost not on the team but by the time my J. V. season began I was one of the leading scorers on the team. Things were looking good going into my senior year but like I said before, Coach Wack must not of gotten new glasses because I found myself with the privilege of a front row seat at every game and a uniform but no playing time, unless of course we were up by at least thirty points.
At the beginning of my senior year I was hit with some turmoil in my life. My father who had been suffering from arthritis for many years and was in and out of hospitals for the past five or six years found himself in really bad shape, His lungs were slowly solidifying and the doctors had no idea why. Test after test was performed and some different surgeries but still nothing was solved. Then at the beginning of my senior year I entered the room to my art class when I was met by a lady telling me she needed to talk to me so I needed to bring all my things with her. That morning after family prayers we received a phone call from the doctor as I was leaving the house informing us that my father had suffered a heart attack but made it through and was still in a comma. My mom and my little brother Ethan went to the hospital and I chose to go to school and for her to call me if there were any more problems. So the first thing that entered my mind was my father when I saw the lady. Then when we went out the classroom door and shut it standing behind the door was my bishop. Now then I knew it wasn't good news and I already new before the words came out of his mouth that yes my father had passed away. On the drive to my house I remember staring out the window. It was a pleasant sunny August day. The sun was shining it was partly cloudy. We drove down the road and across some railroad tracks when I saw other people driving and others walking and talking and laughing as if nothing had happened. I was very upset. Didn't they realize the earth was short one great and wonderful man. Didn't they understand that the whole world had just changed. And I remember all of the movement. The clouds were moving the cars the people my mind. I wanted everything to stop. I wanted the whole world to freeze and just pause and just not move at all. I wanted there to be no change at all. I didn't want the change of my life of having my mother and father both together to change. I didn't want any change in anything to happen. After getting home and being able to be alone with my thoughts and able to cry and pray and think things out. I was able to realize the importance of life. The importance of being happy. I knew my father wanted me to be happy. I new my father wanted the best for me and that he would not want me to be sad. And even this such a horrible change was able to turn my life to the better. I was a new person, I had a new understanding of myself. I had a new ambition in life to always be positive and happy, and to make my father proud. I had the ambition to lead on the Guymon legacy and stay true to the name that rests on my shoulders.
After High school I got a short lived job at a pool cleaning place, where I refilled tanks of chlorine and reloading trucks with those tanks and other chemicals, as well as occasionally gassing myself with a blast of chlorine leaving my throat a bit soar, and a stinch that takes a couple months to finally rid your body of.
January 2000 While most people were just getting over the old Y2K scare I took a road trip with my two brothers Mark, and Matt to Utah to enter a training facility to teach me Portuguese and how to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In February I was boarding an airplane that was headed for Chicago where we got onto another airplane that took me to Sao Paulo Brazil for two years. It was there that I developed a strong brotherhood with my fellow missionaries, and learned a multitude of lessons that have prepared me for everything that I have experienced up to this point in my life. Those two years have made the second most influential impact on my life, The first MOST influential impact on my life has been the life of my daughter and the presence she is in my life. I feel terrible that I am focusing such a minute paragraph to depict these two years of my life, however I could literally write an entire book on my experiences and the life lessons I learned.
Now a days you can catch me at my house with my wife and daughter Hannah who blessed our lives on May 25, 2005. I am currently in the process of getting fat. I enjoy playing with my daughter Hannah, watching a movie, or a basketball game, and playing basketball. I met my wife in a chat room, and now we are currently in the process of slowly but surely getting by, and creating ourselves a nice home, to raise our family. After three dreadful years of taking over the phone catalog orders for such magazines as Chadwicks, Learner, Lane Bryant, & Brylane Home I took on an internship where I worked as an illustrator drawing illustrations for state standardized tests for mainly Michigan & Florida. After 2 years we moved to Austin (Cedar Park) at the end of November 2006 where I got hired as a Designer for a dental marketing company called Practice Cafe where I cook up logos, direct mailers, brochures, ads, and other various printed marketing materials for Dentist all over the nation. Since 2008 I have been privileged to take on the position of Senior Web Designer for Practice Cafe mixing together valid CSS and XHTML for some SEO friendly custom dental websites.
