 Basic Info
Name: Eric Jeremiah Stars
Nicknames: Stars, The Pianoman, Slickfingers, Uniball
Bithdate: May 8th, 1980
Age: 31
Profession: High School Music Teacher
Marital Status: Single
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Birthplace: Myrtle Beach, SC
Parents: Sarah and David Stars
Siblings: Laura and Jennifer Stars (younger)
Random Info
Car: 2003 Ford F-150
Pets: a white rabbit named McTwist
Hobbies: Surfing, playing music, playing flag football, running
Instruments Played: piano, guitar, bass, drums, harmonica
History
The 80's was a difficult time for Sarah and David Stars, they were newly weds living in Myrtle Beach, David was a high school music conductor, his wife was a home maker still trying to get through college when the good news hit them, though they didn't know how good it was until later. Sarah became pregnant, they were worried that they wouldn't make it with only one of them working, but after several months of discussions they realized that the child that they were going to have would be a blessing upon them, and it would be the greatest thing in their lives to bring a child into the world. In the summer of '82 Sarah gave birth to their first and only son, they named him Eric after David's father who had passed away the summer before, and right from the get go they knew that the boy they held in their arms was something special. Eric would be the first of three children for David and Sarah, but he would be the only boy they would have, and he would come in handy many years later when his sisters started to date and get interested in boys, he had a tenancy to scare some of them off. But we digress, Eric was a happy child, it was a rare occasion that Eric would be found crying, he would often times be cooing at his parents, and they were very proud to have given birth to such a boy, pilot and kind even at such a young and tender age that he was. A year after Eric was born his mother graduated from college with her degree in biology, after she accepted a zoologist position at the Charleston Zoo the Stars family discovered that they would be having a second child.
Fast forward ten years and we find an eleven year old Eric, taking piano lessons, and then teaching himself how to play other instruments, his father was more then a little bit proud of his son, who seemed to be the only one who inherited the musical genes he possessed. Eric wasn't the quietest of people, on more then one occasion his teachers recommended to his parents that Eric needed to be on riddilin, and while he was a very bright boy and did well in his studies, he was a bit erratic and tended to be a class clown. Everyone chalked it up to the fact that he liked to be noticed, which was partially true of Eric, in a home with two princesses it was hard to get any attention from your parents who were already busy to begin with. It wasn't long till Eric was in high school and his father got a small dose to what his son's teachers had been talking about, and while Eric sat first chair in the concert band at tenor sax, and was the sole pianist in the symphonic band, he was always cutting up and making jokes, much to his father's disdain. Despite how things were going in his high school career and his popularity in and outside the band, things started to take a left turn half way through Eric's senior year.
Eric was starting to experience a lot of discomfort in his abdomen, what was passed off as just being constipated, he started to worry when he found that one of his testicles became enlarged. After confiding in his father his worries they went to the doctor, several hours more tests, and more discomfort and pain then he would have liked to endure, it was determined that Eric had Stage II Testicular Cancer. Surgery was planned and after that rounds of radiation and chemo therapy, it seemed his senior year was not going to be quite as good as he had hoped. It was the first time in Eric's life that his humor failed him, and his parents, his sisters, and his friends would've done anything to have the same old laughing Eric around, they would feel more confident in his recovery if he had been that guy they knew and loved. The day before the surgery Eric broke down, cursing God and everyone he could think of, why did this have to happen to him. Despite this emotional break down, the next day when he awoke, his parents faces etched with worry he came down the stairs as if nothing had happened, and the devilish grin came back on his features. The breakdown was necessary for him to evolve, and now with a renewed strength he was wanting to take down the cancer monster once and for all.
Eric had to be on more medications then he had ever taken in his entire life, thanks to the radiation and chemo he lost all of his hair and he started to wear beanies everywhere, but Eric stood tall and kept going forward. He had a hard time his senior year keeping up in his classes but his teachers understood and helped him when they could and when it came time to graduate, Eric went up to accept his diploma, only to remove his beanie, revealing what looked like the start of his old dark hair growing back once more. After hugging his principal and his father who shared the stage with the rest of the teachers, Eric honestly felt like he could accomplish anything. It has been twelve years since those days, and while Eric still goes in for a bi-annual check up, he has remained cancer free and he was still able to retain the use of one testicle.
After high school Eric had a lot of options on where he wanted to go to college, but in the end, and despite his parents wishes, he moved out to Texas to stay with his mothers sister, also he wanted to attend Texas A&M, being persuaded to go there by their music director. To save money while he lived in Texas, Eric stayed with his aunt and uncle and their daughter, they only had the one child so Eric, to them, was practically their son while he lived with them. He realized early on that they were workacholics and that Becca had a lot of time where she was on her own, part of that annoyed Eric so he decided to take the younger girl under his wing and introduce her to the fun that the world held. He began to see Becca as another younger sister he loved to take care of, and his feel good, happy go lucky nature seemed to rub off on her from time to time, and as the years went on and he graduated from college with a bachelors in liberal arts, his younger cousin was beginning her own college journey. Eric had the opportunity to move back to Myrtle Beach and continue to live the life of a beach bum, and it was something that was attractive to him, so he decided to jump on the chance, but he didn't stay there long.
These days Eric is a high school music conductor, he has been known as the cool teacher at the school and he has single handedly brought the music program back from the brink of non existence. While he has had to go before the academic and county school board to defend some of his teaching practices, he has been herald as teacher of the years for three years running, easily winning over teachers and parents. He realizes he is getting older, but in all honestly Eric is happy with who he is and where he is in life, he couldn't think of having a life better then this.
|
