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This page is about "My Story" - it's about my Journey from many years ago up to today

The beauty of life is that we all have the ability to make a choice. especially when it regards important matters that affect us.  With any decision you make. you want to gather all the information. to make an informed choice. and the 'best' decision for yourself and your family. 

Remember: Every thought, every choice and every decision you make affects your future.  Mississauga Homes for Sale

This page is about my journey from birth to the present and a few details of what happened in between.  It's kind of like a blog, but it's only about me and my family and how I got to this stage in my life.  I hope you don't find it too boring. 

I have read many fascinating biographies and 'about me' pages on the web and find they all have a little bit to add to my personal experience and learning curve.  If you want to add "your story" then you can sign my guest book, I would be very interested to hear how you got to this page on my site, what your personal journey was and what you are currently grappling with at this stage in your life.  Sign my guestbook.

I will try not to bore you too much and I will try not to ramble on.  Rambling on has always been a problem for me, as much as I love to listen and learn from others, I also love to talk and and share information and expound upon the details of anything and everything wth other people.  Again, I am always interested in learning more, getting it right or just wanting more information about a subject.

So here we go.

In the beginning

I was born in St. Catharines Ontario on September 17th, 1958.  Geeze, as of September 3rd, 2005 that makes me 46 years old, about to turn 47.  If you are at a similar age in your life, you will know that these mid 40's years are a time where you really do reflect upon your life.  Not just where you have been and what you have done, but about where you are going and that you are running out of time to do it all.

I grew up in a small (tiny by Mississauga standards) 3 bedroom home on a quiet residential street called Highland Avenue in a nice area of St. Catharines.  We played a lot of hide and go seek and street hockey when I was growing up.  I had some very close friends who all lived within a couple of blocks of my house.  You may have had a similar upbringing, lots of freedom, very little pressure to do well in school, not many responsibilities.  It was so much fun.  It was all about having fun and playing.  That's what I remember the most.

We had our public school reunion this year.  I attended Glen Ridge Public school which is situated on Glen Ridge Avenue in St. Catharines.  It was a complete time warp to go back to my public school for the first time since 1969.  Everything was almost the same as it was 35 years ago.  It was great to see many of my old friends and even some of my teachers are still around.  I have posted a few pictures here.

Bobby Orr had an influence on me

At any rate, I digress, as usual.  When I was young I was involved in many sports.  Sports and having fun was my entire life experience until about grade 12.  My favorite sport was hockey, I played defense and always loved Bobby Orr and the Boston Bruins.  He was 'my idol' for many years and he certainly had impact on how I wanted to be when I grew up.  I recall watching Bobby when he would get the puck and 'take control' of the entire ice surface.  He had the ability to control his environment.  This was because he was such an awesome player.  But I knew that he also practiced all the time and had a drive unlike many other hockey players and this was what made him such a great player, I am sure of this.  I recall during my younger years that I knew if I were to do well at hockey and in life that I too would have to work hard, try my best at everything I did and continually strive to learn and get better.  I know that my mother taught me these values and Bobby Orr just was an excellent example of someone who probably followed those values and goals and achieved success.  Somehow, as a young boy, I could see this.  I also knew way back then, that "hard work pays off"  Somehow this was ingrained in my personality.

So, when I was young I was always very active, with my friends or around the house.  I was always very curious about things and would take everything I received as a gift apart.  One Christmas I received a small reel to reel tape recorder and by the end of the day I had it all apart and in pieces.  Problem was, I did not know how to put it back together, but thankfully my dad did and he put it back together for me.   The point her is that I was always investigating how things worked and trying to figure out how everything functioned.  I am no different today.  I have spent about 10 hours over the past few days (the end of this summer of 05) trying to figure out short lines of php.  I figure it is about time.  I have tried to figure out how the php function called 'page fetch' works and what it's all about.  I would like to insert some code on some of the pages of my website that are automatically updated without me having to copy and paste or retype the entire content.  Again, this is another personal challenge and I have to learn about how it works before I can use it on my site.

A Born Salesman

But I digress.  Another critical (at least in hindsight) aspect of my childhood was the fact that I had a passion for collecting (more on that later) and always wanted to make money and/or extra money.  I never seemed to have enough money.  I would read the Life magazines and others that my parents subscribed to and I would read the ads at the back.  I read ads about how to make money and become rich.  My mom encouraged me to send away to, I think it was, Carlton Cards and buy 10 or 20 boxes of Christmas and greeting cards at the bulk or wholesale rate and then I could turn around and go door to door and sell them at the retail rate and pocket the difference.  Entirely legitimate.  Of course I was just fine with making a profit, especially since I was providing a service by bringing the good right to the people's door.  I recall some years I would pre-sell the boxes (no different than Girl Guide Cookies I guess) and then send in my order and deliver the cards and get the money.  It was so exciting.  I had no problem approaching people or knocking on neighbours that I did not know.  I was a 'born salesman' my mother and friends would say.  To this day, my wife say, after 20+ years of marriage, that I could sell my mother to someone if the price was right.  The point is that I could do it if I was motivated enough to do it.

Another one of my passions when I was young (and to this day) was that I collected and saved everything that I could get my hands on.  I mean that I would take business cards of stores, flyers, stickers, matches, coins, mementos or whatever I could get that was free and keep them as a souvenir.  I would scan all of the automotive and other magazines for 'send away for your free gift' or 'fill out the coupon below for a free sticker from...' and I would send them away.  I was always receiving free stuff in the mail.  I still have many of the items.  I remember Bacardi had free "Rum Kits"  that I received, and some pipe tobacco came in mail one time, and many many stickers from all the different automotive companies, automotive parts and accessories and places around the country.  They would all send this stuff to me for free and I would keep them all in an album or in my room.

To be continued.... Saturday, September 3, 2005 5:02 PM

Mark Argentino

          Signed, Mark Argentino, P.Eng., Broker

More about Mark and RE/MAX

What's my Story and how did I get into real estate?

This page contains many of the doctrines that I subscribe to

 

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