My name is Eric Raymond, I was born in Brampton, Ontario and eventually moved to Timmins, Ontario in the summer of 2002 so that my parents could raise my older brother and I in a place that’s closer to family, everybody on my father’s side of the family except one of my uncles lived in Timmins while my family on my mother’s side weren’t too far away with the majority of them living in New Liskard. One of the only aspects of my life that carried over from my life in Brampton was my love for Video Games, I picked up controller when I was only a year old and played Super Mario 64 and among many other games and I never really stopped. Video Games are a large part of my life as they always played a big part in my main social circles and even family gatherings, they also contributed greatly to my love for history due to there being many great games that are based around historical events or “what if?” alternate history scenarios. Despite Video Games playing such a big part of my life, it never stopped me from seeking social interaction, my desire to play sports as a kid originated less from the competitive nature of them (although as I got older I did get a little competitive) and more for a desire to have fun and make new friends. Having grown up in Timmins, I didn’t have what one would call a normal childhood as I’ve noticed the city seems to be some sort of beacon for weird things and people to appear, an observation that was proven upon when I began working at Tim Hortons. The strange aspects of Timmins allowed me to have a knack for telling stories to my friends, something that collided with my love for history as sometimes those stories involved fun aspects of history. It was that collision that gave me an epiphany of sorts in my final year of high school, that I wanted to be a teacher so I could not only continue telling stories but also share the knowledge that History itself can teach as I think it’s lessons are the most important ones to learn.