My name is Niko william Ivancovich, I am from Sonoma County, also known as the Wine Country. My father named me after Nikola Tesla, who was a famous entrepreneur in yugoslavia. My middle name is william because that is my father’s name, and it is a tradition in yugoslavian families to take your father’s first name as your middle name. My last name Ivancovich comes from Herzegovina, a european country who use to be apart of Yugoslavia. My Heritage is a very important thing in my family, and it had the biggest affect on choosing my name. I really like my name, Niko William Ivancovich, I think it is a strong name, and nobody else has it.
I grew up on a large vineyard riding dirtbikes, driving tractors, shooting guns, and learned the meaning of hard work. I have one brother named Luka who is six years older than me. My brother was a huge part of my life growing up, he influenced me in many things, the most important being sports and fitness. My brother got me interested in sports at a very young age, and I played many sports such as football, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse. I went to a private Catholic high school in Santa Rosa called Cardinal Newman, where I met some of my closest friends who I know I will be friends for life with. I am a mix of a city boy and an country boy. If you were to see me walking around, or you met me you wouldnt not know from my appearance or personality that I was raised on a vineyard. In school classmates and teachers often think im a shy guy because I keep to myself, but im actually a very confident guy with great social skills.
I am currently a sophomore At Chico State. I study Construction Management which combines my two passions of real estate and business. I like my construction management classes more than any of my other classes, and I usually always do very well in those classes. After graduating with a degree in Construction Management I plan on getting a job with a top tier contracting company, and after a few years of expeirence in that I want to become a developer. I live with three of my best friends, two of them are from my hometown of Santa Rosa, and the other I met when I joined my fraternity. I joined a fraternity at Chico State called Lambda Chi Alpha, that is relatively new, which allows me to be a part of an organization where I have a huge effect on the growth and success of its future, and it has also helped me create countless new relationships. I am currently on the social chair, and sorority relations chair which involves me planning and advertising social events such as formal, working with sororities to plan events, and talking in front of hundreds of people in lecture halls.
Family is a very important thing to me, and their is nothing that I love more. I beleive family to be people who you love, are loyal to you, trustful, and you would do anything for eachother. I have a very large family with cousins, uncles, and aunts all over the United States. I am closest to my dads side of the family who mostly all live in California. I have one brother who is six years older than me, and two older step-sisters that I consider my Sisters even though their dad and my mom arent married. My moms boyfreind Matt is a really solid guy who is one of the best marketers in the country. My Mom is the sweetest woman in the world, and I love her with all my heart. My dad is very succesful and hardworking man, who I look up to a lot. My parents got divorced when I was in the 4th grade, it created a lot of problems for me in my life, but I think I became stronger because of it. Another part of my family is my bestfriends Sammy, Steve, and Tanner. This group of guys are all standout individuals, and extremely fun to be around. We all have eachothers back, and would do anything for eachother.
My hometown is Sonoma County, which is located one hour north of San Francisco. My hometown is a place that is very special to me and I cherish it very much. Sonoma County is known as the Wine Country because it is one of the best places in the world for growing wine grapes. Living on a vineyard myself I took lots of pride growing up in the Wine Country, and because I have always wanted to own my own winery. Sonoma County is filled with beautiful valleys, rolling hills, vineyards, and gorgeous red sunsets. Sonoma County does not have huge cities like San Francisco or San Jose does, but it does have many beautiful downtowns that give a boutique vibe. It is a very big county and has a population of about half a million people. Growing up I lived in four different cities in the county, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Kenwood, and Petaluma. The county is filled with many different personalities of people ranging from country folk to the super rich. When Im older I plan on moving back to my home, it is one of the most gorgeous places that I have ever seen, and the people are very friendly.
If I were to give myself a piece of advice for when I was much younger it would go something like this, “ Be more confident in yourself, and don’t care what others think of you”. Growing up I was always a little unconfident in myself, and it was because I cared and worried to much of what others thought of me. I was always a very good kid, I played sports, I had friends, I stayed out of trouble, and I was as cool as anybody else. Even though others liked me I still had insecurities about myself that stopped me from doing things that were out of my comfort zone, and it made me a little shy. When I got to highschool I realised that there was no point in worrying or caring what others thought of me, all it did was make me self conscious. I knew that the actions and beliefs I took/had were ones that I felt were right, so if somebody disagreed with me then that was more of a problem for them than it was for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I still took others feelings/thoughts into consideration, but if someone had a different viewpoint than mine it wouldn’t bother me. This new viewpoint I had on life allowed me to become more confident and social which has had a big impact on my life. I think everyone should be more confident in themselves and not care as much about what others think.
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