My name is Claudia Jimena Gonzalez. I was born in Bucaramanga, Colombia on November 27 of a year not to far ago. I have two sisters, whom I love very much, Patty and Lucy. My mother’s name is Henny and my father is Hernan who unfortunately died on November 2005.
I started Kindigarten when I was 3 years old at the ‘colegio de la Presentacion’. For Elementary I attended “Anexa”. It was at this time when I discovered my interest for the dance and acting, truth is I never missed an opportunity to participate in any ballet or plays (I still remember being in “Margarita tiene sed” and “Dulcita y el Burrito” plays where I played the protagonist). Thanks to my mother motivating my sister Lucy and myself, we took classes of ballet for many years, an activity that I enjoyed tremendously.
Growing up in my neighborhood, I meet numerous and very special neighbors and friends which I shared many marvelous moments playing “Ring and Ditch”, “Tag”, “Hide-and-go-seek”, and on the weekends roller-skating around the neighborhood.
I attended high school at the “Colegio de la Presentacion” and with the help of the nuns and professors they prepared me for my studies at the local public university (Universidad Industrial de Santander). Here I studied for 5 years before graduating and obtaining my degree in Civil Engineering in 1998.
As a civil engineer I found work in Mogotes, a city in the province of Santander, there I worked for two and a half years for the Department of City Planning (Responsible for the city's general plan, zoning, municipal land decisions, and environmental studies). Latter I had the opportunity to work as coordinator of quality as dictated by ISO 9000 standards in INRALE Ltda.
I moved to the United States on February 2, 2003 with hopes of learning about a new culture and improve my English skills. Eventually I found work at Schulke, Bittle and Stoddard an engineering firm located in Vero Beach. Here I have spent two and a half years working as a drafter using Autocad.
I am very happy and excited with all the wedding preparations. In David I have found all the love and support that I have looked for in a man whom I wish to share the rest of my life with. |
My full name is David Andrews Rodriguez. I was born in Hollywood, California on November 16th. Many may not know this but I was named after David Banner, the fictional character from an old TV series call “The Incredible Hulk”. What can I say; my dad loved that TV show. Actually my dad wanted to call me David Banner Rodriguez, but my mom stopped him (Thanks mom!).
For as long as I can remember, I have always been a happy, easy going kid. I was always keeping busy doing stuff. I was into baseball, soccer, tennis, basketball, karate, biking, hiking, boy scouts, model cars and airplanes, sciences, magic, drawing and painting, acting, piano and finally I did a lot of volunteer service in a local hospital.
I played on a baseball league for a while and then moved to soccer. After about a year I had a soccer accident that led me to a leg operation. Unfortunately that occurred right before starting High School. I spent my first year in high school on crouches. Not fun! During this time I started spending more time with computers and learning more about them. In fact, I learned so much about them that I assisted in designing, building and later managing my high school's computer lab.
Because of the demand for my assistance with computers, I started my first business called DAR Computer Consulting Services. I choose DAR because for starters it is my Initials and second because in Spanish “dar” is the Spanish verb “to give”. By the end of High school I was working three jobs and going to school full time. That was not easy, but I enjoyed every minute of it.
After high school my focus was on becoming a doctor. I spent the next 2 years working on my medical degree; working during the day, going to class at night and volunteering at the hospital on the weekends. After those two years, I realized that medicine was not for me and that my career in computers had already started without me knowing it.
I had done so well with my computer business that I was able to pay for part of my parent’s new home in Florida. Here is another bit of information that many people do not know. I designed my parent’s home in Florida, all four thousand square feet of it.
Now here came the best decision of my life. After moving with my parents to Florida I started two new businesses, D&E Computer Consulting Services, Inc. and Bright Sky, LLC. D&E is my computer business that I started together with my brother-in-law Enrique and Bright Sky was a company that I started with a friend of mine that I met here in Florida.
After about a year having Bright Sky, one of my employees, Maria Christina Ferrara, insisted that I met a friend of hers. Not being one that likes being hooked-up, I persistently said no. That is until the day she left to go back to Brazil. On November, 26th 2003 she had a going away party at 8:00 PM. I never thought that going to that party was going to change my life for the better. That was when I met the love of my life Claudia. |
