Patrick E. Holstad

I developed an interest in fitness and strength training in high school, namely during my junior year. My interest was sports-related as I played basketball. Therefore my primary focus was training for basketball. However, even before my senior year began, my interest in strength training began to become more of my primary focus. I also enrolled in Army ROTC my freshman year of college and received a scholarship. I am still a cadet and will be commissioned in May of 2010 as a Second Lieutenant. Through ROTC, I also attended US Army Airborne School in the summer of 2007. In the summer of 2008 I attended our cadet evaulation course and received the Recondo Award. My interests also have changed in university. I began as a pre-pharmacy major, but after working in a pharmacy I realized it was not what I wanted to do. I changed to International Studies and Russian during my sophomore year. I recently returned from studing abroad in Russia. This summer I participated in the US State Department's Critical Language Scholarship for Russian in Astrakhan, Russia. I studied abroad this past semester in St. Petersburg. As a result, I spent 5 and a half months of this year in Russia. I have also completed a year of Portuguese (basic level). 2009 was a very good and life-changing year for me. As stated, I spent nearly half of it in Russia. I also traveled to Costa Rica in March, and developed interests in business and fashion. I already have a passion for trance and house music, and would like to see these interests eventually combined for business opportunities. I also have a passion for Olympic Weightlifting and currently train 5-6 days a week. I also recently began a blog to document and share my training, ideas, and methods. I am also currently working on a website dedicated to lifestyle, covering topics on health and fitness, style, music, and nightlife.