Nicholas Zarzeczny

One & Only Ocean Club Beach View

Class: Alpha Mu Class, Spring 2011

Family: Beta Eta Chapter Wookie Family!!!!! (Best Ever!)

Littles: ---

Positions: ---

Background:

Having been born in Russia, Nick is proud to say he has already come a long way. Russian orphans get put onto the street after 9 years of age due to the expense of running the orphanages. Nick feels lucky to be adopted at age 4 from the 16th orphage building of St. Petersburg, Russia. Sadly, this was during the time the Russian government was being overrun and changing. Most of Nick's information about his true parents were destroyed, but few facts still remained: mother side being Ukrainian and father side being Russian, and that they weren't able to house him due to the expense of a child.

That is when the good grace of Nick's adoptive parents come into play. Nick's parents always wanted a child and so in 1992, they go and adopt Nick's current brother Lucas, who is also Russain. But soon Luke starts speaking English and explains that he wants a brother to do things with. Their parents then go back to Russia two years later and adopt Nicholas in 1994. Ironically, being at such a young age, Nick doesn't seem to like the idea of a new family, for his orphan friends and caretakers were being left behind. But over the years of building bridges and tearing down blockades, Nick and his new family bond together and are the strongest they have ever been.

Nick went to a local pre-school called Young World, and had many memories with Luke. Due to the creepiness of this pre-school, they bonded closer because they were afraid to do things on their own with other kids they didn't know. However, their most fond memory is when playing Teen Ninja Mutant Turtles on the original Super Nintendo. This sparked many years of video game playing for Nick in the future. Later on, he reminices of how he always found it fascinating at how data could be read and put onto a screen which interacted with gamers for them to play.

Avonworth Elementary School

Next was Avonworth Elementary School, as his parents weren't sure of whether Nick's brain capacity was as normal as others. And so as he recalls, he used to be taken out of his classes at random periods of the school day, which he kind of enjoyed. However, he was taken to the school's psychologists room, where Nick would then be given tests, which he didn't enjoy (but there was always candy at the end). Long story short, the results came out to be completely opposite of what his parents thought. Nick was then put into these new classes that were coming out called GATE immediately. As he recalls, they were classes for the smarter kids as they were being taught how to read quicker, pick up on certain things to comprehend certain reading material better, and among other things.

Avonworth Middle School

Years progressed and he moved up to Avonworth Middle School, quickly making more friends as he started helping other students with their homework and explaining it to them. His favorite memory in middle school would have to be all the things he deemed deviant at the time. As just one example: he made a code refrence that he gave to his best friend, Alexander John McMillan. Nick then took apart whatever pen that was available, putting the coded message inside. Then his friend would pretend he needed Nick's pen, and then using the code refrence to decifer the message and write another message. Alex would then send it back to him, using the same excuse of needing the pen. This was deemed deviant as we were not allowed to be sending messages to eachother, which still confuses Nick at why that would be considered bad. And so sometimes they would get caught, but the teachers were baffled when they tried to read the messages, as they needed the code reference.

High school came along and this is where he feels as if he found his true self. He made friends and enemies all based on how they treated others. Being on the cross country team helped because it gave him a team to be on. Though he tried filling his brother's footsteps in running, he always felt as if the two created and moved the team. The football team was never fond of their winning streak as the football team was still on a 12 year losing streak. They never liked the idea that for how many people were on the football team, they kept losing. It took only two to create a good team and put Avonworth on the map for cross country, and it took 12 years for them to keep losing games. And so as we go through the life of Nick Zarzeczny, high school is where he was defined as who he was. He always helped those in need, who deserved it. Some of his greatest memories occur in high school:

Brother finishing first at WPIAL meet

Freshman Year:

Drawing lifeside picture of James Bond in art class along with pottery, which one peice is actually still in good use
Biology with Alex
Running WPIALS for the first time
Team placing in WPIALS to move onto State meet in Hershey
Taking the sugar packets from Penara Bread to eat them before the race along with the honey
Eating at Ole' Couldron the night before State meet

Mike and Nick cherish their time

Sophomore Year:

Taking computer class and creating art projects of abstract images
Having three periods during the school day in which Alex and Nick would sit in this connected room to the study hall playing computer games. Lunch was the second period so they would just get lunch and return to the room to keep playing or talk about anything. Then English class was the third period. It was during this time that the school had just fired a previous teacher for smoking on the job and being drunk in class. So they would just have study hall again. Half way through the year the school finally hired someone and that's when Alex and Nick met their newest best friend and fantastic teacher, Miss Fox! They would talk to her about anything and joke around. When class time came they would be good students and listen. Through their high school years, Alex and Nick would hang about after school for after school activities. However when these activities didn't start till later on, they would go and chill out in Ms Fox's new room (which the school had transferred her to a real room after her TA experience). It was during these times they would dream about making a difference in Avonworth
Taking Mr. Valente's (the music teacher which was connected to the connector room) coffee and vanilla flavor and mix it with milk to make really cheap lattes
Playing hacky sack on nice days outside with friends during lunch period
Placing in WPIALS top 20% and team placing in 1st!
State meet in Hershey, placing 144 out of 340ish kids

Fainted Memories

Junior Year:

Becoming friends with most of the teachers as if they felt as I would do good in the future
Chemistry 1&2 with Ms. Duker, who loved Nick as many teachers did
Videography with replacement art teacher: Created movies such as: Emo-be-gone(popular hit in Avonworth), What is America?, Mocumentary of Me, Little Boy Blue (All of which Nick still keeps for memory sake)
Spring of '08 participating in School's Beauty and the Beast
- It was during this time, his met first girlfriend which lasted till he had to move onto college
Placing 10th in WPIALS indivdually qualifing to States with his other best friend and long time running buddy, Mike Zakor, who sadly graduated that year and is currently attending Michigan State University.
Starting an idea of a Filmmakers club with Alex

Avonworth Filmmakers Club

Senior Year:

Going to Prom twice with his girlfriend at the time
Individually placing in WPIALS to qualify for States for the 4th and last time
Carrying the last fragments of what used to be a solid team
Took business electives, which sparked his interest in a future business career
Started the longest adventure with Alex McMillan called the Avonworth Filmmakers Club!
- Alex had the honor of composing the mysterious music that added to the suspense of the film. Nick acted but mainly directed the film. They both collaborated to produce the first film from Avonworth in 23years. They were invited to participate in the senior graduation pilot project, which the school district was thinking of implementing depending how successful we were. (this was an honor most kids didn't know was happening)
  - Due to their enormous success with their first movie, they were allowed to present their movie to the student body
Graduation of Spring '09...

[**Sorry for the dust as this webpage is in progress for your enjoyment**]

Childhood:

Nick considers his childhood anywhere between the ages of which he remembers to when he matured greatly. In other words, after his adoption and somewhere roughly before college. It was during this precious time in which obviously he grew up to who he is but also an importance due the meaning behind it. Before Nick had better things on his plate like homework, meets, and filmmaking he and his brother would spend long hours in the woods in which they had behind their house. The woods to them seemed endless at the time, which Nick ironically eventually figured out it would actually lead straight to the high school (birds-eye view) over the highways and constructing neighborhoods.

Sitting in China country of EPCOT

These woods mean so much to him as he and Luke pretty much did everything in those woods. From building thornbush forts, to swinging vines like Tarzan, a neighborhood club in a shack that our dad built for us (which we then rammed with a dead tree in later years due to the rotting foundation...peices flew everywhere), stick fights, cleared weeds and laid down stones for road system (which enabled them to move stones three times their weight up a hill, built in steps on steep hills, a stick teepee (which enabled two chairs to fit comfortably), firepits...pretty much you name it.

The woods ment so much to Nick due to all the years of living in them. The brothers learned to respect nature as for what it is and how it worked. Later on they vowed to change this dying world around us, partially spurred on by Disney's hidden messages in Walt Disney World's theme parks! (pic. on right) Parrallel to the nature's theme are the vacations Nick takes with his family to Paradise Island, Nassau in the Bahamas. After seeing some of the most beautiful sights to nature, whether in the Atlantis aquarium or around the island, Nick knew he would always enjoy the beach and its natural rythm in life.