Eddie
Adkins

1992 Reunion information: Served six years in the Army and received honorable discharge in 1989. Currently enrolled at Lorain County Community College pursuing a computer programming degree. Recently married.

2002: Hello Class of 1982. It sure doesn't seem like 20 years since we went our separate ways to play the cards that life dealt us. After High school, I decided to get a way a while and find out what the world was all about. After reviewing all options, the military provided exactly what I was looking for. On November 3rd 1983, I raised my right hand and headed for army basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. My initial enlistment consisted of six years. At the time it didn't seem that long. My recruiter told me about some interesting careers, and after a couple days, I decided on a career working with the LANCE missile system. It seemed hi-profile and hi-tech, but I found out later, that my recruiter failed to mention one small detail about the missile system; it is Nuclear capable.

After completing basic training I was assigned to my first duty station at Fort Sill. After two years, I received orders assigning me to a unit in Wiesbaden, West Germany. There I spent three years there serving the military and absorbing the culture and sites of Western Europe. While in Germany, something interesting happened to me at a running event. It was at a local air base and I had just finished the race. As I was walking around cooling off, I noticed someone very familiar to me. I looked again and was surprised to find out that it was Derrick Champe, a fellow classmate.

After three years, the shine had worn off of Europe and I was ready to return to the U.S. I had one year left, and returned to Fort Sill. Serving in the military gave me an opportunity to mature and mesh with other personalities and cultures. The six years I spent in the military provided me the direction and maturity I needed at this stage of my life.

After the military, I decided to go to college. It was the best decision I made for two reasons. I received a degree in information technologies and I met my lovely wife Susan. During attendance I found out Susan and I already had one thing in common, our last names. This led to our first date and then a year later we married on August 24th, 1991. After three years of marriage we decided to have children. On September 4th, 1994 our son Edward W. Adkins, III was born. Eddie is eight-year-old and has kept a four-year passion for dinosaurs. He is a very curious and sentimental eight years old with a lot of Susan's characteristics. Four years later, March 27th, 1998, our daughter, Ember Victoria, was born. Emmy is four and was born with a passion for Barbie dolls, make-up, dress-up shoes, and anything "girlie". She is a sweet, loving, giving little girl who looks after her big brother. I can't wait for her to grow up! My children both compliment each other as Susan and I do. My wife and children are my life. Life is only as good as those you love.

For the last eight years I've been working as a consultant for BP Oil. I started working at the National Credit Card Processing Center in Cleveland in their Information Technology department as a Programmer/Analyst. After four years in the commercial processing area I, became a project manager. The next year I was chosen as lead project manager to undertake the center's Y2K inventory and upgrade project. The last two years I've been working as a Senior Applications software engineer for BP's service station settlement department. The last eight years at BP have provided me the opportunity to do something that I wanted to do since high school; to design and build a log home to live in the rest of our lives.

In the summer of 2000, we started the construction of our log home in Vermilion, on two acres of wooded land. It all really started when we purchased the land and started to clear it in 1998. I decided to general contract the home and make it my own project. All the materials where delivered in July 2000 on four flatbed semi tractor-trailers from Tennessee. After approximately eight months of delegation, hard work, and sweat, we moved in and we've never felt more at home.

I hope my twenty years of reflection didn't bore anyone! Lucky for everyone that this is the abridged version! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at our twentieth class reunion.