It is hard to boil everything down to a short essay, isn't it? I feel as if I have many parts to my personality and have varied interests. I have many seemingly opposing things about me: I'm a teacher, I'm a student, I'm an athlete, I'm a martial artist, I'm a musician, I'm a sensualist.

I love being outside and experiencing all the sounds and smells of the outdoors. I love having my hands in soil. I love walking through the woods and seeing all the life around me. I love to run to the top of a high point and take in a deep breath and see for miles.

I love being around interesting people. I love learning what makes them tick. I love learning about new ways of doing things. I love to eat new foods and hear new music.

I love my friends and family. They are special to me. I consider "the guys" to be brothers to me. I know for a fact that they would do anything for me and I would do the same. I enjoy calling them up and rallying the troops for a get together.

I love to cook. I love to drink coffee. I love to enjoy a fine beer or a glass of wine from time to time.

I like to wake up every morning and put on music that makes me want to dance. I'm not a huge dancer, but I feel good music in the morning is very important. If I get fired up in the morning and approach everything with a great attitude I notice that I'm a happier person and my happiness rubs off on others.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a busy man. Much of my week is devoted to working on my Masters Degree and teaching at a high school. I'm a saxophonist with a music degree. I feel the need to balance both mental and physical aspects of life, so I'm an active athlete and martial artist who trains in strength training and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I don't feel as if a day is complete if I haven't spent time enjoying the outdoors (even in rainy Oregon), haven't had to use the ol' noggin, and haven't had a great workout.

As a saxophonist music is really important to me. I have very eclectic musical tastes, but my main are of listening and performance is jazz.

I love to grow. I'm always looking to learn more. I take all failures and try to learn everything I can from them. I feel that life has a lot to give to me.

I'm in the military. I'm serving in the US Army Reserve. Please suspend any judgments you might have about military personnel. While I am a soldier, I place high value on love, compassion and empathy. I consider myself a peaceful warrior. How's that for a contradiction? While I would never hesitate to protect the innocent, I hope I can go my whole life without engaging in violence. As a soldier and martial artist I am a trained fighter who believes that fighting is almost never the answer.

I'm very driven and I know what I want in life. I'm picky when it comes to women. I need to find a woman fun and interesting to be attracted to her. Intelligence, humor and conversation skills are an absolute must. I could go to some lame bar and pick up some empty headed bimbo if I wanted, but that isn't what I'm after. I'm not out there for just a one night stand. However, I won't go into a serious relationship if I don't feel that she is the right woman and we have a great connection.

It is also crucial that any woman I'm interested in takes care of herself. I'm not saying she needs to be a health nut or work out non-stop, but she just needs to take care of her body, be proud of who she is and feel comfortable with herself.

Eating. I'm serious here. I'm very active and therefore eat an absolutely crazy amount of food. Because of my voracious appetite I try and eat as much healthy food as possible. I'm an unabashed omnivore (although I am totally cool with you veggie type of people).

The way to my heart is through my stomach. I can't say no to a pretty woman with peanut butter.

I tend to be a nice dresser who works out a lot, but that doesn't mean I'm overly obsessed with my looks.

I think a lot about my students. I want to become the best teacher I can. I want to inspire my students.

This isn't private, but I will admit a few things here.

I'm a very active person. Anybody who dates me needs to understand this. I only want somebody who has some direction in her life.

I'm very busy and the things in my life are highly important to me. I don't neglect those around me and I enjoy the company of others, but my goals and aspirations are important to me. My music and physical training is also important to me. I feel they both keep me well grounded and sane.

You should message me if you think we might hit it off. I would love to meet you and have a good conversation. Maybe we could connect on a higher level, or maybe we would just enjoy each other's presence.

I try to reply to every message. That doesn't mean I'm interested in meeting every person. I might say that I don't think we are a good match. Don't take that personally. I've been around enough to know what I want.

At the same time I'm not interested in endless emails. I feel that real human to human interaction is far superior to connections in cyberspace.