Mitch's Blog

One talent I have is that I’m a great skier. In 2006 my family got a vacation time share to Vail Colorado and we have went there once a year every year since then. Additionally I am from Long Island New York so in the colder months there is decent skiing only a couple hours north that my family, friends, and I often took advantage of over 3 day weekends and such. Skiing is like anything else in that practice makes perfect so to have my parents start me out when I was 6 and live in an area where I could ski for many months of the year and go on vacation in the months we couldn’t allowed me to get a lot of practice in and thus I’m pretty good. I’m certainly no expert but Vail, Colorado has some of the largest ski mountains in the country and over the years my family and I have tackled just about every trail including the double black diamonds and because of that I think that I am a great skier.

My name is Mitchell which is an English and Scottish name that comes from the name Michael. The meaning of the name is the same as Michael and it is “who is like God” My parents picked this name because they really liked the name Michael but they wanted my name to be unique and Michael was very common so they went with a version of the name Michael, Mitchell. Nobody really mispronounces it even though it’s not a common name as it’s said like it’s spelt. A nickname I sometimes go by/get called is Mitch which rhymes with a certain B word that most people don’t like to be called. Never really got picked on for this growing up but there are a few funny stories I can recall of someone calling me by my nickname and a teacher hearing it wrong and flipping out. “Gotcha Mitch” and “Mitch get over here” are the two that stand out in my mind. I like my name because I feel like it’s a really normal name but hardly anyone has it and I wouldn’t change it though I doubt it has affected who I am as a person. When I’m naming my kid I will look for similiar names in that they’re unique but not totally out there like how celebrities name their kids cause most likely they will have to go to school and get a job one day just like their Dad.

This is my Chaminade High School Camo hat. I got it sophmore year during crew season because everyone on my boat wanted to have matching hats for the day of the race and at the time this was the hottest headwear at our bookstore. For those who don’t know crew is rowing, in high school it is a fall and spring sport, the Fall being longer races (4000+ meters) and the spring being shorter (1500-2000 meters). Every team had a unisuit which was more or less a spandex onesie, so to look less lame most teams wore other accessories (hats, glasses, underarmour shirts, leggings,etc) and if your stuff didn’t at least mostly match the others in your boat you and your whole boat looked like scrubs. After originally buying this hat to match the people in my boat sophomore year I wore it to just about every race fall and spring all the way to senior year. It’s been there for every win and loss in my 3 year rowing career and I associate a lot of fond memories with it. That being said it’s pretty beat up from 3 years of wear and tear, so I would only charge about 10$ for it because it is still a perfectly functioning hat that keeps the sun out of your eyes, but no longer offers much aesthetically.

This is my longboard that I got between the fall and spring semester. It’s made by the company “lost” which is mainly a clothing and surfboard company. Around 2013 lost decided to do a promotion called “kampus kruisers” and the idea was that lost would make a bunch of skateboards with different college logo’s on them and all the new kids going to those colleges, suddenly in need of convenient transportation around campus, would buy their board. Long story short it flopped with lost getting 9 colleges on board and selling hardly any. One of these colleges was NYU which is near my hometown. Fast forward to Christmas break when I was looking for a skateboard for the spring semester and I find this guy on Craigslist who says he used to work for lost and has like a storage unit full of these things (NYU ones) and he’s basically trying to get rid of them. I paid 10$ for the board and another 7$ for a can of white spray paint to cover up the NYU logo but what I came out with was a stylish purple longboard that got me where I needed to be, and many would pay in the triple digits for (based on looks and the fact longboards are really expensive not build). The board itself is heavy because it’s poorly made with inefficient materials and hardly turns, but it’s still faster and easier than walking, there’s probably a couple hundred of these in existence, and it cost me about the same as my average chipotle order. Taking all of this into consideration,I think, is enough to consider this board cool.

One item that I own that is very cool is my pair of merino wool shoes by Le Mouton. Right off the bat the name “Le Mouton” sounds foreign, exotic and fancy which is cool. I believe the company is French but this is irrelevant so long as the name sounds cool. Another name you might have heard these shoe’s go by however is “allbirds” it’s essentially the same shoe, same material but made by a different company. This pair of shoes has been gaining popularity over the past year or two because of how lightweight and comfortable they are. While they are gaining popularity I still wouldn’t consider them mainstream as I don’t know many people who own a pair which means they are new enough to be considered cool. One last fact about these shoes is that they come in all colors and sizes and are unisex which helps their “coolness” because inclusion is cool while misgendering is uncool.