Brian M. Bowman
"Blessed is the man who...is like a tree
planted by streams of water that yields
its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not
wither. In all that he does, he prospers."
- Psalm 1:1,3 ESV
The Roots
Who I Am
People often identify themselves by describing their personality, their ethnicity, their preferences, and how they spend their free time. These aspects are beneficial to knowing things about someone when you see them out in society, but they do not account for everything about a person. They describe how someone is, but not who someone is.
If you take away all of the external things about someone, what is his or her identity? If a man is a world class athlete and a popular Hollywood icon, what would he do if he got into a car accident that left him paralyzed and severely burned in the face? This would cause him to lose many of the things that he did every day. He would need to reach into the core of who he really is to advance in life.
My identity is in Jesus Christ. His spirit in my heart was born the day I accepted Jesus as my Savior. My life would be empty and I would be spending my life working for a dead end without Christ. He gives me victory over sin because God sees me as blameless through his perfect son Jesus because I am a child of God. The only thing Jesus cares about is if I am living for His eternal kingdom.
I continue to strengthen my identity every day as I spend time with God and learn more about His love for me.
"Perfection is not a destination. It's a daily journey."
-Inspiration from Living for Another World by Justin Kendrick
Family
In terms of my heritage, I am 1/4 Irish, 1/4 English, 1/4 German, 1/8 Polish, and 1/8 Czechoslovakian. The Irish, Czechoslovakian, and Polish come from my mom's side of the family and the English and German come from my dad's side.
My dad's name is Burf and he has roughly the same stature as me. He has worked for New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG) since he was my age. He is a very hard worker and loves to hunt whitetail deer in his free time. My dad has shown me what it means to be a man of integrity and I have always looked to him for advice. My mom's name is Shawna and she is a certified dental assistant and is currently a dental secretary. She has always put me and my sister first and has gone above and beyond to support us. She loves to play all sorts of card games, including her father's favorite, pinochle.
I have one sister, and her name is Melissa. She is almost four years older than me, and is different from me in many ways. She has always excelled in art, dance, music, and theatre. While she was in high school, she did soccer and cheerleading. Today, she is in her third year of teaching art to middle school and high school students. She is almost always involved in a theatre or dance production, and continuously works on community art projects with her students.