My name is Gabriel Algabyali and my family is originally from the Middle East. My grandfather came here about 50 years ago as an entrepreneur looking for a new start and a chance to be successful. With his slim-chanced success he brought his family to America. I was eventually born Brooklyn and I lived here for 6 years until I moved to Orlando, Florida about 15 minutes away from Disney World where I would go many times as a kid. Although I was born in the city I consider myself a suburban kid because of the majority of my younger years in Florida. Down in Florida I was introduced to skateboarding at the age of 10 and since then I haven’t stopped. I had a hard time with high school because I was always transferring and with my parents rocky divorce things took a while to get stable in my life. I ended up going to two high schools in Florida and finally moved back to Brooklyn at age 16 where I went to another two high schools. Being back was such a culture shock to me, everyone here is a lot meaner, I feel there are a lot more crazy people, and it is a lot busier here too. Either way, life is life and you have to roll with the punches.
I looked for an avatar that I feel would represent me in the best way possible. I thought of sceneries of where I lived, maybe something from my culture, or even what I’m going for in my major but none of those felt like they gave an in-depth view on what represents me. Then I thought way not an avatar of what I do on a daily basis? So that’s exactly what I did, I chose a picture of me doing a backside crooked grind down a 4 stair handrail. Skateboarding has become such a huge part of my life since I was a kid. It has helped me get through rough times and has made good times better. Throughout my life, no matter where I was or what was going on, I can always remember myself skateboarding and forgetting everything. This is why I felt me skateboarding as my avatar best represented me.
How someone else may interpret my avatar is in a wide variety in ways. Many of views on my avatar may contradict others because there are many negative stigmas connected to skateboarding but if they really thought about what skating really was there’d be many more positive views. Some of the bad views on me would be that I am involved with drugs, disrespectful, uneducated, and hostile which all of these are untrue but there are many positives associated with skateboarding. Some good views would be that I am dedicated, persistent, perseverant, athletic, and confident. It is all a matter of what you hear from other people or believing stereotypes but skaters are not bad at all.
My profile will hopefully convey who I am as person to the point where you would know who I am by clicking on my name and going through the page. It should start by showing who I am and my interests then show why I am in college and what my major will be. In my opinion it shouldn’t matter to someone else who I am because I realize the more you worry yourself the more productive you would be in your own life.
