Gustavo Martinez

Currently Serving as a SHIRE Ambassador

Hello everyone. This is Gustavo Martinez, erstwhile Shire resident.

The process of coming to where I am is a long tale that begins with a poor little Mexican American boy living in a trailer with his parents and elder sibling. Slowly it becomes a story of a spoiled if neglected young boy, living in a new suburbia where brush and farms stood a decade before. The tale returns our protagonist to being fairly poor by American standards, (while actually being spectacularly wealthy by global standards), is uneventful for nearly a decade, and is suddenly fraught with tutoring children, feeding tigers, and traveling across the country for fun and (non)profit in its latest chapters.

Where am I going?

Before we can get to where we are to go, we must examine where we are.

I live on 100 acres of beautiful hill country. I have gainful employment, both the sort that provides me with cash and the sort that is hard work, provides no pay, but creates lots of love. I have beautiful friends and beautiful loved ones. I am a part of a thriving community. My family loves me, and creates a shelter I can return to if necessary. 

How did I get here?

I think the biggest contribution to being where I am is the ability to learn from my surroundings. I have never been as frightened of new places as I have been eager to learn from them. I give credit to every amazing person I have ever met, every inspiring story I have read, every breathtaking vista I have seen for every bit of creativity or inventiveness I have ever generated. If the world were to write me an epitaph today, it would be: "As a boy, he read books. As a man, he read the book of life."

Where am I going?

Yes. The question; I know what I want. I know what I desire.
I want to live with my friends, in a beautiful space. There can be smaller designs or bigger ones; what I want for my spirit is action, pleasure, and wonder. For my loved ones I want health, brightness, joy, and whatever their hearts desire. I intend to continue working as an inventor and creator of new ideas, and an efficient though by no means irreplaceable step in their implementation. I love life and I love to learn; this life is a big big place full of more than we will ever know. I believe it is best to accept that we are mortal, and open up our hearts and grow as much as is our gift-right.

Also I sing and act and am a passable dungeon master.