My Life Journey

Posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 9:58 pm

My life journey begins in a rural small town called Waterloo, Iowa it was here in 1983 that I was born. The family spent about 2 years in this town located among the corn fields and pretty much all by it’’s self in the middle of no where. Thank Goodness I do not remember this place I think it might have been pretty boring.

The journey continued north to the great state of Minnesota, it is here where my family roots lie both of my parents were born amidst the snow drifts that are all so common here. My grandparents also have spent most of there long lives in the same house that they rose there children.

We moved to a place called Moorhead which is right on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota, now this city is pretty similar to Waterloo a small city out in the middle of no where just sitting there. It was here where another crucial piece of our family came along, My brother Brett was born here in 1986 and will be making the journey with us the rest of the way. We spent a short while here again I can”t remember anything from the stay here, all I have to go on is stories told to me by my parents who were both working as teachers at this time.

So from here we moved down to the Twin Cities, also known as Minneapolis and St. Paul. The house we moved into was actually right across the street from my grandparents, and the house my father grew up in. Now this was good for me and my brother because my grandparents lived on a lake and it kept us busy and entertained. Also we could see them whenever we wanted and trust me we always did because they kind of spoiled us.

It was here that my dad finished teaching and became part of the business world. This is also where the passion of my life started, I”ll give you one guess what it is….. Hockey. Hopefully you got it!

I started skating here when I was 3-4 years old, I learned by pushing a chair around on the surface of the lake in the winter, now I bet your saying pretty cool skating on top of the lake but you didn”t feel the wind that was blowing in your face and burning the skin not really sure why I went back out there when I look back at it now.

So after another year or so here in the Land of 10,000 lakes we move to the next destination which is Arizona, Scottsdale to be exact. So let me tell you about culture shock, going from a place that can get to -40 degrees F to a place that reaches temps of 122 degrees F. So I showed up here to a welcome of cacti and snakes the worst animal on earth or at least the creepiest. We spent four or five years here before moving on to even another new area of the United States, this would be Littleton, Colorado.

It is actually right out of the main city of Denver, and they actually do get snow here but it doesn”t stay on the ground very long. This is where another one of my hobbies began set way up in the Rocky Mountains, this would be snow skiing.

The family was here until I was done with grade 8 it was at this time that I tried to get away from my parents while kind of I was beginning to take hockey serious and wanted to move back to Minnesota so I could play High School hockey which is very competitive. I asked if I could go live with my grandparents so I could do this, well I did live with them for a couple moths my parents actually decided to move back to there homeland and they still reside there today, they actually tore down my grandparents house and guilt a new one in its place.

Now after four years of High School I decided to pursue hockey a little more and this is where I take off on my own and leave the family behind. I actually Traveled back to where it began in Iowa about 45 minutes down the road to a place called Cedar Rapids to play junior hockey in the USHL spent one year here before signing a letter of intent to play for the green and white of Michigan State University.

This is what one would call the best few years of my life, I mean the college lifestyle is second to none. Not to mention winning a National Championship to boot. After these wonderful years I made the jump to pro hockey and signed a two way contract with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL and the Cincinnati Cyclones.

I ended up in Cincy against my better beliefs, and started out pretty good and by Christmas was leading the league in scoring by a defensemen and no word from the parent club I decided to depart for Europe and ended up in Heilbronn, Germany. I arrived there in January and spent a few great months there enjoying the culture and sites.

I then went back state side for the summer and at summers end I found my self on a plane bound for this wonderful city some of you might know Belfast and I tell you I have enjoyed every minute of my time here thanks to all of you and your support.

So there you have it my life journey! Hope you enjoyed it…

Take care,

Tyler Howells