Biography

Introduction: Andrew McNeal

Who Am I?

I’m a writer.

“Wow, who would have thought, a writer on a platform for writers?!”

I know everyone says that, but I’ve loved writing since I learned how. I’ll keep it short and simple, but don’t worry, I’ll have plenty of future stories to fill in the details.

The Basics

I’m 32 and was born and raised in Dallas, Texas.
I’ve lived here most of my life aside from a summer in New York City and three years in Chicago, Illinois as a child.
I’ve been married almost seven years and have a daughter who’s going into kindergarten.
I love writing, history, cars, and learning.

The Beginning

I was born at 25 weeks, weighing one pound, thirteen ounces.

I was not initially expected to live very long, then doctors said I’d never walk, talk, or read, and would have a low IQ. My birth family was unable to care for me, so I was adopted at eight months.

I began reading at age three, and was an A and B student all throughout school and excelled in English, writing, Literature, and History. I wrote multi-page stories in class in elementary school, often because I’d already finished the normal class work.

I grew up in a middle class, loving family that tried their best. I loved life as a child and lost that somewhere along the way.

I quit writing in middle school, about the same time I quit piano lessons, another thing I had once fervently enjoyed but now thought I was “too cool” for.

I graduated high school in 2006 and attended the University of Texas at Tyler for two years, focusing on journalism. I lost interest and hated that I hadn’t been able to move away from home for school.

I didn’t write anything again for several years until I picked up journaling…for a few months. I lost my journal on a Greyhound bus coming back from leaving a job I hated in Colorado. I lost six months’ worth of thoughts, ideas, and stories I’d put my all into, and I didn’t write for fun again until last week.

My Struggles

I was severely bullied in school and it took me until just a few years ago to come to terms with being “gifted” (The Gifted part of being “Gifted and Talented”) and being ok with who I was.

Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, with various consequences studied in longitudinal studies of giftedness over the last century. There is no generally agreed definition of giftedness for either children or adults, but most school placement decisions and most longitudinal studies over the course of individual lives have followed people with IQs in the top 2.5 percent of the population — that is, IQs above 130. Definitions of giftedness also vary across cultures. — Wikipedia

As good as I was at reading and writing, I was horrible at math, to the point where I couldn’t get a degree. That just challenges me to prove I don’t need one to be successful.

The downside to this is when you’re constantly told you’re a “winner”, and you see yourself making great achievements, you start to truly believe that when you lose, or aren’t the best or the smartest, you must be a “loser”.

I struggled with this for years and it led to depression, anxiety, and around two decades of feelings I had never shared with anyone.

This lead to wasting an entire decade in off and on alcoholism and completely losing any sense of who I was or had been.

It nearly broke my family, I lost every friend I had, but somehow my wife and parents supported me through it all. I’m now six months into recovery, although I’ve done it in an unorthodox way that worked great for me, which I will discuss in later articles.

Interesting Things I’ve Done

Driven to or through nearly every state in the continental US.
Came inches from stepping off the very edge of the Grand Canyon at age twelve
Took several road trips to different places in the US for almost a year
Got robbed at gunpoint on one of them
Spent the summer of 2012 in New York City
Saw Roger Waters live on the last day I was there

Things I’m Passionate About

History, mainly focusing on American society throughout the 20th century
Cars. I am a huge car enthusiast and have worked in the car industry, although I’d much prefer writing about them.
Writing. I’m here to sharpen my skills and learn new things. I believe everyone has something to teach and learn from you.

I have many stories to tell. Many exciting, some sad, some frightening and dark, all of them leading to the moment of me sitting here writing this.

I’ve learned something from each one and have pieced a short bio together that I hope will enable you to get a sense of where I’m coming from with my writing.

I hate talking about myself which is why I used this once chance to write an article completely about I, Andrew McNeal.

Thank you for reading my bio, visit my page at http://medium.com/@amcneal1414