Hey, I’m Daniel Zmuda! I am currently a Sophomore and I am majoring in General Business. I am from Boise, born and raised.

Basically I’m the middle child between two brothers. My older brother is 23 years old, and my younger brother is 17. By being the middle child it’s easy to see that the youngest of the family will always be the “baby” no matter how old he gets, and the oldest will always say that they had it the worst because they were the parent’s guinea pig. I think that I was able to expand my awareness outside myself and really develop self-analysis because I was able to see how my family has interacted with each other. My family is “Loud”, and we basically aren’t allowed to have anything to hide. There is always someone there willing to call you on your crap, for example if anyone in the family was being an ass, someone would be willing to put you in your place. My family constantly discuss ideas about the world, be it in politics, or anything else, and I think that it has been good for my brothers and I to  grow up in a home that the parents are willing to talk and debate anything and really give there children a voice.

I like to read, and it’s the same for music for me. Unless it’s just poorly written, I don’t mind reading it. I don’t have a specific genre of music or books that I prefer, it just needs to be well done. For Christmas usually I receive a bunch of books that I can read until the next year. I don’t think I have a particular favorite book. For Music, probably my favorite artist is Nicki Minaj.

I used to be incredibly interested in politics, and current events. As I grew older, and developed more awareness about the world I realized that only the Elite can make a difference. I find it hard to rely on what our Newspapers say about what’s happening, or Fox News, or CNN. They all are big businesses and are just out there to make a big story, even if it means leaving out the entire truth. My parents are both Conservative, but I grew up in the public school system, with very Liberal teachings, therefore the information that I was taught during school and at home have helped open my eyes to both sides of the debate. I personally don’t affiliate with either party, I might even consider myself an Elitist.

I hope we all have a good time in this class this semester!

I was born and raised in Boise Idaho. Though most of my childhood was spent in Cascade Idaho. I think that I was raised in a small town friendly environment with people that would give a stranger the shirt off of their back. The family and the people they chose to have around me influence me as a person for the better. I was aloud to see the people I never wanted to become and those I aspired to be like.

I always really loved reading fictional mystery books. Or those books that depicted crazy hardships of teenagers, such as drug abuse. I read plenty of non fictional books school. As I got older I enjoyed reading autobiographies or biographies of people that had really hard or different lives then I did. Stories from other countries, the wars on human trafficking, drug king pins in the US.

I think friends and family is where I would get most of that information. Some times I will read news articles and websites that I know might be biased, like MSN news. As much as I should I don’t keep up with everything going on. If there is something I hear that I want to know more about or find out the unbiased facts, I will go looking for answers. I don’t take time every day to go over what is happening.

I spend all of my off time with family, riding dirt bikes, hunting, camping. I know that there are injustices happening all around the world everyday, but my priority is my family here and now, any free time I have is spent with family, I choose to focus on them rather than the other things happening around me. Obviously I know there is an importance in being aware, but I only have one life and have no idea how long it will be.

I don’t think I have a religious or spiritual journey. I do have the view that as long as what you are doing doesn’t harm me or another living creature it doesn’t hold any weight in my life.

Both my parents came from the same culture.

When I was little I can remember have night terrors about flying to see family after 9/11, I was an extreme worrywart. No doubt do live in a bubble in Idaho unaffected by the injustices happening around me, and I think there is a lot of bad in our world, but in mine, here in my bubble its good.

Growing up I was not aware of the animal abuse and injustices that occurred. I wasn’t aware of the amount of dogs euthanized because of overpopulation or how society chooses to ignore it because they don’t having voices to scream for help. Anywhere that I can give dogs a voice I will. If that means telling the people that are looking at the puppies in the Cabela’s parking lot about the genetic deformities that land these dogs that were bred by back yard breeders in our human societies I will. If it means calling some one out for abusing animals in public I will.
My parents were essential to shaping the person I am now. Giving me a chance to have a voice even on something we might disagree on. I was never silenced as a child for speaking on a topic I believed in or against. My parents allowed me and my sisters to experience things that some parents might have otherwise sheltered their children from. That alone helped shape who I am and what I stand for.