A Brief Introduction

So, to start this off, my name is David Krawiec. I'm a first year classical guitar major at the UNC School of the Arts, in Winston-Salem. This is me to the right here (yep, it's a beauty shot). I have been playing guitar for most of my life, but classical guitar for only about 2 and a half years. It is pretty much the most important thing in my life.

So, time for a little bit of background info on me. I grew up in Raleigh, NC with my dad and my older brother. My dad is a professional writer and my mom is a linguist. She can speak every Slavic and Romantic language fluently, and is currently a high school Spanish teacher. Both my parents grew up in New England- my dad in Massachusetts and my mom in New Hampshire. I am a fourth generation American- my great grandparents came from either Poland or Ireland.

I have a little bit of Portuguese and Scottish blood, but it is such a small amount that I don't identify with either cultural identity. I am pretty much (in my mind) half Polish and half Irish. To help drive this idea home, here is a picture of me, smoking a cigarette in the middle of some woods in Poland. To be specific, it is the Bialowieza Forest in Eastern Poland, one of the oldest forests in the world. It's obviously photoshopped, but that doesn't matter- it still makes a pretty goofy picture. I just have to hope that I don't start any fires!

As a little kid, I played baseball (I was actually really good at it). It was my true love for about half my life. Eventually I decided it was either baseball or music, and I chose the latter. My dad raised me to be a cultured person- an artist for the sake of making art. I used to draw and paint, I took dance lessons for a while, I listened to a wide array of music, and I watched a LOT of very good films (I used to want to go into film for a little while). To the left is a painting of me (not by me, but of me). Those white lines are where the frames were- it is actually four paintings that become a picture of me when put together.

Raleigh may not be the most diverse city in the world (read: New York), but it certainly is fairly diverse. Because of Research Triangle Park there are a lot of people of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian descents. Some of my closest friends throughout school had recently moved to America. Because of this diversity, there tends to be a good amount of the arts going around. Each culture in the area shares its arts with the others so that all can learn more about each other. I spent all of my middle and high school years (and now college) at schools that were known for being great for the arts, and I took advantage of the opportunities provided to me to experience each art. In my opinion, the most important thing for any person in America to do (especially newcomers, but really everyone) is to learn and experience all the arts and cultures that are present around them. This country is known as a melting pot of cultures for a reason. Experiencing what everybody else finds culturally important leads to acceptance of others and a culturally diverse existence. If you are accepting of all the cultures around you, they will become accepting of yours, and you will become assimilated into the country. Staying separated from the rest of the country causes some people to fear (and even despise).

To finish off this post, here is another picture of me. This one is made out of smaller pictures of things that make me ME. Everything in there is a personal interest of mine, so look closely and try to figure out some more about me. Or just look at it for 5 or 6 seconds and be like, "oh that's cool" and then keep scrolling. Whichever you prefer. (Hint: there are a lot of guitars)