Dear Malcolm,

To start off simply; my name is John Patrick ODonnell, JP for short, I am a kid from
Currituck, North Carolina. Before you ask, its that one rural county that everybody has to go
through in order to reach the outer banks. You know, the place where you sit in traffic for two
hours if you try to go to the beach on a Saturday. Anyway, I moved there at the age of 2 from
Vidalia, Georgia and havent lived anywhere else since then aside from Governors school which
Ill talk more about later.
In any case Ive always been a student with ambition and the need to be successful in
anything that I try to do. Even from a young age, I had ideas about what I wanted out of life,
although that has changed multiple times since I began thinking about it. Aside from wanting to
be a Pokmon master in elementary school, most of the things that Ive wanted to do have been
remotely realistic. My first choice was to be a contractor for the NSA; however, that dream came
crashing down as I realized that writing code for a living was mind-numbingly boring. The next
path that I chose was some form of engineering, which is what I have stuck with thus far,
Mechanical Engineering. In all honesty, Ill probably end up trying to get into law school or
possibly even accounting before all is said and done. So, I suppose the moral of the story there is
that whatever I end up choosing, I will have the drive to excel in that field.
I guess I should probably talk about my family and friends at this point. Well, I have my
mom whose name is Dawn and is a first grade teacher at one of the elementary schools in our
county. My Dads name is Jody and he works as a morning show host on one of the more popular
radio stations in Northeast North Carolina, Beach 104 in case youre ever in the area. Last and
probably least, I have a little brat, I mean, sister named Annabelle who is in 5th grade. On a
serious note I love her to death, but the eight year age difference tends to be a bit of a challenge
with her vying for everyone and their mothers attention at all hours of the day, but thats enough
about her. On the friends side of things a few of my best friends are here at Charlotte with me,
two of them also doing engineering, the other two doing Marketing and a double major in
political science and philosophy. We typically spend most of our time walking, walking, and
more walking because two of us, including myself, live in North Village, whereas the other 3 live
in Scott. Given that the Student Union is closest to us, they usually are the ones to make the trek,
although we have walked down to south village, or hell as we like to call it, a couple of times.
Aside from that you can find us playing pool in the Student Union, playing FIFA in my suite, or
even perhaps playing Cards Against Humanity in the basement at Scott. Lastly, one of the most
important things in my life is my girlfriend Cydney. I connected with your letter in the way that
you married your high school sweetheart, and I mean its not like Im thinking oh yeah were
getting married, but if that were to happen I wouldnt be upset in the slightest, given that most of
my free time back home was spent with her. If I had a few hours where I wasnt doing
something, you could bet that we would be seeing each other.
Aside from everything that Ive mentioned so far, sports have had a major influence on
my life. I mean, my first word was dada and my second word was ball (if that doesnt show how
important something round was in my life I dont know what does). From the beginning, it was
always soccer, basketball, and baseball since the age of 5. As I got older it seemed that I naturally
gravitated more towards soccer except as soon as I hit middle school, my coach turned my world
upside down. He told me to try out keeper. Well, this one took me for a loop, I had always been a
striker or an attacking mid and here he was telling me to take on a whole new position. Given

that I played basketball and baseball, the move made sense, so with that knowledge I thought that
I should give it a go. From that point on, is history, I shut out a team that had never been beaten
or tied before in the 15 years that they had been established. As I moved onto High School I was
one of the only two freshman to make the varsity team. I had a very successful sports career at
the high school level and club level. By the end of senior year I had a conference championship
for soccer and also had been the starting keeper for the Northeast team in the PowerAde State
Games held here in Charlotte. Along with that a spot on the all-conference and all-area team.
Another change happened in high school as well though in the world of sports for me. I had
switched from baseball to tennis, and had a found a natural talent in The Gentlemans Game.
In my second year playing I became the number one seed while also having an undefeated
season helping my team to the first conference championship in our schools history. While we
werent the most talented team, we knew what it took to win matches, and thats all that really
mattered in that setting.
Earlier I mentioned Governors School. My entire life Ive always loved music, its
accompanied me on runs, cooled me down when I was angry or frustrated, or even picked me
back up when I was at my lowest. When I got to high school I said I might as well do chorus, or
was partially guilted into it by the chorus teacher. Either way, I really enjoyed it, so when I heard
about Governors school and that they had a choral music program I immediately became
interested. I went through the application process and was selected for an audition spot among 60
other hopeful tenors. I auditioned and found out that I at first did not make it and was put on a
waitlist, but luckily enough for me, someone dropped out of the program and allowed me to take
their place in the prestigious group. In interest of keeping things short, I spent five and a half
weeks with some of the most intelligent and creative people that Ive ever met. For once, I
wasnt one of the smartest kids in the room, and it caused me to want to work harder and want to
do even better in school. It motivated me to try even harder and strive to be just a better human
being all around.
Im a firm believer of the theory that our past experiences define us, or the thought that
our choices define us. I mean the great Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was also of the
same mindset, so I should probably be able to put stock in that. So, if Im going off of that, it
would make sense to do everything in my power to create the best definition possible for John
Patrick ODonnell.