My Journey toward Present Day

Early Childhood age
I was born in Derby Connecticut on July 30th 1982, although predicted to be born August 3rd. I am the only one in my family to not be born in August, I guess I was anxious to start life. I have always had a powerful imagination, creating many different worlds around me with art. Paper and crayons, forts under and in trees, villages out of rocks sticks and matchbox cars, I used what ever I could get my hands on to build. I wrote my first poem in first grade about a deer that I saw outside of the classroom window as I was daydreaming. I have always been fascinated by the world around me but more importantly, how I could affect it. As early as I can remember I have always been captivated by the stars above, distant lands, and existence itself; I can remember as far back as my first birthday. I spent many of my childhood days sitting in the grass, up on a hill, or just staring out my bedroom window thinking as I still do today.

Primary School age
I began to go on many close adventures, each one probing farther and farther from home. I continually felt a strong attraction to what lied just a little farther away. Either by foot, bicycle, skateboard, or imagination, I would consistently push my limits. I was the kid in my neighborhood that could always come up with something to do. I was able to come up fresh ideas right on the spot, or find a great place to build a new fort. At the age of seven I was placed into a private advanced drawing course. I played with paints, pastels, and charcoal on and off till about the age of thirteen. I would draw from time to time, but less and less as I grew older. My creativity was shifting toward my intellectual inclinations with science. My imaginative worlds now existed in the realms of science and would grow larger the more I learned. My mind was like a sponge absorbing facts like water, but unfortunately my grades did not reflect my ability to learn.

It was not made apparent until my junior year of undergrad that I’m dyslexic. I was over loaded with coursework and I began recording problems in statistics class backwards off the blackboard. Advised to see a specialist by my Spanish professor, I was soon diagnosed. Dyslexia makes testing what I actually know difficult because I store and access information much differently then most people. I think mainly in a primary sense (in pictures). It makes dates and names almost impossible to remember, but gives me the ability to remember things in great detail. I don’t think of it as a learning disorder but rather a gift. It changes how I see the world allowing me to think and observe things much differently then most people. I innately learned to counteract it as a child, and because of this I am able to view the world in and out of the box constantly delivering a fresh perspective. And hey, Albert Einstein was dyslexic!

High School
I was just as confused as the next kid, only I was happy. As most of the kids I knew caved to peer pressure, I did not succumb to it. I did not indulge in mind altering substances or even care to. All I ever wanted to do was ride my bicycle; my drug of choice. Spending long days venturing farther and farther from home on my bicycle, I would explore new cities, learn new tricks, or compete in more national races. I joined the National Bicycle League when I was 14 and competed till I was about 18. If I was not racing I was building trails (jumps) in the woods to get higher and higher; as most of my classmates achieved this feeling artificially. On my fifteenth birthday I was gifted a camcorder and with it the journalist in me had a new medium to escape through. I began to capture everything from my friends to the extreme sports that I participated in. I edited my first BMX video with nothing more then my camcorder, VCR, and CD player. The first time I left my home state on my own was at the age of 16. I took a bus to Colorado to learn how to snowboard in the Rocky Mountains. My eyes were wide open and my camcorder hardly left my hand. That trip surfaced my desires to travel the world, making me more conscious of myself. Not too long after I came home I was gifted my first 35mm camera (a Nikon N2000) for my 16th birthday by my father Kevin David McCarthy. Learning some of the basics by trailing close behind him, my interest for photography quickly grew into a passion.

One summer morning while on summer break before the start of my junior year of high school, I woke up; literally. That day I felt very different inside, and decided to change a lot of things about my life. I completely removed myself from the negative social groups I was involved with, leaving me with maybe two friends. I decided that I would start applying myself in school in the hopes to get into college. That summer my cumulative GPA was about a 1.3. Upon graduation, my junior and senior year cumulative GPA was around a 3.5. I applied to one college, Southern Connecticut State University and was accepted. People can change and I am living proof.

Undergrad
I was not by any means properly prepared for college and my first semester grades heavily reflected that. I only received one good mark, an A in psychology 101. So from there on out I took psychology classes mixing in one or two art classes a semester.

In college I united my desire to travel, with my newly developed passion for photography thus beginning my endless endeavor to travel around the world. My Nikon N2000 soon saw the sun set in Santa Monica California, the night sky of Las Vegas Nevada, and even over the Great Wall of China. It was at S.C.S.U that I revisited my artistic side. I was being introduced to new mediums constantly allowing me to reexplore my childhood passions. I was creating worlds again, and art was becoming a significant part of my life. My mind was learning and exploring science and art simultaneously allowing for some very unique perspectives in both fields. Ironically enough, I was actually told by my photography professor that I did not even like photography, “Why are you taking this class, you don’t even like photography.”

I graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in May 2006 with a B.A. in psychology, and a minor in studio art.

Graduate School
I was working as a television broadcaster for Ascent Media in Stamford during the summer of 2008. One day my uncle called me up and asked me what I was doing with my life and insisted that I look into art therapy as a career. With the very little research I did decided to go for it. Within three weeks to that day I had quit my job, applied to Albertus Magnus College for the Masters of Art Therapy program, was accepted, and found a local job working with the mentally ill.  I wrote my entry essay on driving to work through I95 traffic, feeling like a lost robot to life, and I even referenced my poem from first grade.

Art Therapy is a soothing combination of Art and Psychology. The perfect career for me, blending my right and left hemispheres together, science and art. I plan on incorporating my passions for photography and travel into this recently booming career. I hope to one day use my abilities to make contributions to the field and to make a difference in the world.

I continue to follow my dreams and keep the kid in me alive.