UC Forward Dan Skillings on Moving Schools Growing Up

Transcript

00:00 just going through your high school career in 10 different schools that you kind of bounced around

00:05 and were a part of in grade school and high school. How difficult was that kind of acclimating

00:12 yourself and being able to kind of get your kind of goals and sports goals and basketball goals

00:20 aligned going through all that? And how did that shape you kind of as a guy growing up and kind of

00:24 prepare you for life here at UC? I had a lot of family that had my back and that was with me all

00:33 the time and I had a very loving family. I still do and they kept me tight. They taught me things

00:39 and moving around school to school was kind of fun. I'm not gonna lie. It was fun. I mean it was

00:45 fun. I experienced a lot of different things. My awareness around New Jersey is very bright. I know

00:51 a lot of places. I know a lot of people. So it was fun. I was just living my young life and

00:58 was just doing whatever. Didn't have to worry about nothing. It was fun. I really,

01:03 I just played street ball. I didn't play no school ball because I wasn't able to really.

01:08 But there's a time I was going to start in seventh grade but I transferred schools again.

01:17 So I couldn't play for that year, that season. And then I went to a school called C.W. Lewis in

01:21 eighth grade and then I couldn't play till late. So like that was all messed up too. So I really

01:27 started my first career in ninth grade here at Highland. So it was fun, man. Like it created

01:31 me to be like a very individual, very individual and I can take care of myself and I learned

01:38 to mature at a young age on that level as a mindset. So and I smiled a lot. You know,

01:46 that's one thing I go about. I smile a lot. I'm positive. I'm never a negative person.

01:51 You'll never see a negative light in me. So that brought that out, meeting a lot of new people,

01:55 staying positive no matter how my life was going at the time. So yeah, I think and I'm

02:01 glad I went through those things to be where I am today.