The why behind the essay

          The profile essay I did, like many of my other writings, is very personal and important to me.  The subject, Geno Ortiz, has been like a brother to me for more than a decade.  When I first met him, I was at a difficult point in my life.  At that time, I was homeless, living in the back of my VW Vanagon, better known as a VW Bus.  I had a job but no place of residence.  A few weeks after meeting him, I finally had enough and moved to Florida from Maryland to stay with my parents, work hard, save money as fast as possible, and get back out there.  Fortunately, after two weeks of working two jobs seven days a week, Geno called and asked me to join the band.  He knew I was down and out so he chose to offer me a way back to normalcy.  He gave me a chance to get back on track and this was an opportunity to say thank you, show my appreciation, and put together what I anticipated to be an interesting piece.

            As far as style and technique are concerned, it feels that this writing was a bit more successful from the rough draft and on.  This is probably a result of my personal experiences with the subject.  During those years, I was able to learn about the man, not just the musician.  I feel this enabled me to use that knowledge of what was below the surface and portray that image to the readers.

            This essay is one of the few that I have ever written for someone other than myself.  It felt good to write a piece more for the reader for a change.  That is important to me because it can not only increase my ability to write “better”, but also will increase my range.