Part 5 - Resources and Abilities

Where did they learn their abilities?

• BASKETBALL: Ryan was first exposed to a basketball when he was very young, at about the age of four. As is age appropriate for younger children, he started with the basics of ball handling, and didn’t even really start shooting until he started little league. As time progressed, so did his ability in shooting and scoring, but his skills were always the most honed in dribbling, passing, and catching. Learning to handle a basketball so young made it something like second nature. Through little league, time at the river court, and later junior leagues and high school varsity, Ryan has continued to improve his skills on the court. The physical demands of the sport also made him fast and spry, and helped contribute to the running habit he would develop in his late teens.

• MUSIC: Music was always something of a passion for Ryan, though the actual inclination to create it didn’t arise until he was sixteen or seventeen. When he was sixteen or so he picked up a guitar for the first time, more out of curiosity than anything else, and decided that he wanted to learn for himself. As part of the process of teaching himself to play (mostly from online tutorials—nobody said he was really good at it) he would get certain musical lines stuck in his head or his fingers, and that led to him starting to dabble in songwriting. He doesn’t do much of that anymore, more out of a lacking emotional capacity to do so and/or care to do so, and he’s only shared this part of his skill set with a limited amount of people.

• SOCIAL SKILLS: Unfortunately for Ryan, his biggest role model in how to deal with people was his father. He learned quite a bit from his father, about how to speak (by example) and how to listen (by instruction). While the latter has served him well, the former has caused him a problem or two in the past. Like any good political speaker, Ryan can at times be too charming for his own good, without even realizing it.

• RELATIONSHIP SKILLS: In maintaining healthy friendships and relationships, Ryan has two people to thank: Owen (for the first) and Sawyer (for the second). Owen was a big influence on Ryan growing up, and is probably responsible for his younger brother becoming such a generally all around guy (well, with exceptions). Everything Ryan knows about personal relationships he learned by being friends—and more than friends—with Sawyer Scott. This includes his sexual prowess but also includes his emotional range, the way he handles himself with/without a girlfriend, and managing his expectations of other people.

If they have an income, where does it come from?

• Ryan’s father has always had money, and the young man has grown up rather dependent on that. It’s not out of laziness or lack of work ethic that he didn’t get a job until moving out, but from a worrying about his father’s opinion. As much as he hates it, he allows his dad to have quite a hold on how he lives his life, and he’s only recently tried to figure out (a) why and (b) how to get rid of it.
• After starting at NC State, he got a job at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Raleigh.

Do they have a job? Do they like it?

• Ryan had a job through the year at Dick’s Sporting Goods. After the car accident he was unable to work, and since making his recovery, they scheduled him for less hours than before. Disheartening but understandable.
• During the summer months he is still an employee at Dick’s, though nobody knows about that job but Sawyer. Thankfully the commute to Raleigh isn’t too long from Tree Hill, and he can excuse it as needing to go up for something University- or team-related, and see Sawyer at the same time.
• Does he like working there? About as much as anyone likes working their very first part-time job. It’s not something he’ll make a career of, but time-allowing, he’s happy to keep it on. As long as he’s making money.

How do they feel about their co-workers?

• He actually gets along quite well with most of his co-workers. He tends to keep to himself and just get the job done… Getting friendly with a co-worker and running into them somewhere would only lead to awkward questions about how he knew said person. He’s friends with some of the people he works with, but he’s not really close with any of them.