Hi, my name is Mike Gainey. I'm 53 years old and live in Friendswood, Texas, a suburb of Houston. I grew up in Friendswood in the 1970s and 80s, and graduated from Friendswood High School. After high school, I got a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Houston Baptist University. Then, I became a band director in the Houston Independent School District for 3-1/2 years. Realizing that band directing wasn't for me, I joined the United States Army as a trumpet player and stayed with it for 20 years, until retirement. After the Army, I came back to the Houston Area to be near my parents. I went to the University of Houston Clear Lake for one year as a computer science student. Now, I live in the same house where I grew up, taking care of my dad, and keeping myself busy with computer programming and online courses from Coursera and Brilliant.