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Born
and raised in Vancouver, Johnny was the first-born child of Ayako
and Shu. The Oshika family greatly valued an active life,
so it was - and still is - common to find them camping in remote
areas, hiking the many peaks of BC, or skiing in Whistler.
This emphasis on outdoor activity formed a lifelong love for sports
that Johnny still embraces today. From soccer to hockey
in his youth to mountain biking and trail running nowadays, Johnny
finds himself just as comfortable sweating at high elevation as
he does relaxing at home.
Education
was another key aspect of life that Johnny's parents highly valued.
This must have caused a lot of frustration when Johnny's early
schooling years showed that he had little interest in education.
Johnny's grades were lackluster at best, and often on the verge
of failing. Plagued with problems in and out of school,
it wasn't until he became best friends with Allen (Best Man) in
high school that he realized it was both possible and worth the
effort to achieve in school. |
This was undoubtedly the turning point in Johnny's life.
His grades started to flourish and he was able to follow Vince
(MC) to study engineering at UBC.
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UBC
offered many of the usual experiences of university life, but the real
education that Johnny got was the experience outside of its classrooms
and long-night study sessions. Living away from home, he started
feeling a real sense of responsibility that he never had before.
The engineering co-op program sent him to live on the other side of
the country and even in Europe, where he developed a taste for travel.
Most importantly, he spent a couple of work terms at Creo, the company
that is now his full-time employer. His experiences at
UBC shaped Johnny's early adulthood and helped to define the person
that he is today.
Every
step along the way, Johnny met people that changed his life. But
nothing could have prepared him for what happened in the fall of 2001,
when he met Angie. Angie combines good looks, great wit, lifelong
curiosity, and a wealth of knowledge that help make Johnny a better
person with more focus and direction. She and Johnny are learning
together to live life to its greatest potential, and both see this as
the beginning of a lifelong partnership.
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