David Uberti, Patch Staff

My biggest problem has always been that I put my hands in too many cookie jars. Even while growing up as a pudgy, Italian kid in Northville I not only wanted to be a cowboy when I grew up, but also a professional baseball player and the President of the United States. After 19 years of dreaming, I’ve yet to make good on any of these aspirations. My distaste for political life, a shoulder surgery to replace a torn labrum and my inability to find a suitable pair of boots prevented it. But that doesn’t mean anything has changed.

Now, my hands are reaching into yet another cookie jar: journalism. I'm heading into my third year at Northwestern University, where I study Journalism and Middle East Studies. My Arabic skills are gradually improving (in sha' allah), and I hope to one day report on national security and human rights issues in the Middle East.

The reason I adore journalism is simple: It gives you a reason to talk to any person about any thing at any time. That's what this business is really about: the people you meet and the stories you hear, not politics or personal agendas.

My mood changes with the fate of the Detroit Tigers, and I have always firmly believed that baseball is the greatest game ever played. I like documentary films, Chicago-style pizza and Hunter S. Thompson.