By BETHANY SHERROW
Assistant News Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — Ryan Evans has literally been from sea to shining sea, and many places in between.

With Evans’ stepdad being in the military, his family has moved to several states to be near military bases.

“Well first I lived in Pennsylvania,” Evans said. “Then I moved to Virginia when I was pretty young, then I moved to a different part of Virginia. Then I moved back to that original part of Virginia. Then to Hawaii, and then to Missouri. North Carolina is where our latest move was.”

While he stayed in Missouri to attend UCM last year, Evans said his family moved to North Carolina to be near Fort Bragg.

On campus, Evans can often be spotted riding what he calls his “short board” skateboard, which he tucks into his book bag. He also sometimes rides his long board if he doesn’t have class that day.

“I actually got into skating when I lived in Hawaii because I had a friend who had a long board,” Evans said. “He went riding and it looked really fun and smooth and I’d never done it before.”

Evans said he would ride his board as a kid around Oahu, Hawaii to go see his friends.

He rode the Hawaiian hills more than the ocean waves. While movies make surfing look really easy, Evans said it’s actually quite difficult.

“I surfed one time and I never did it again because I did not have a good time doing it,” he said.

While he skates around campus, Evans sports his Dominican heritage by wearing a special baseball cap.

“I also have the Dominican flag in my room, but I can’t really wear a Dominican flag everywhere so I got this,” Evans said.

“My hat is from the world baseball classic. It’s the Dominican Republic team hat because my mom was born in the Dominican Republic and she came to America when she was eleven.”

Evans has visited the Dominican Republic twice for family reunions, once when he was 12 and again when he was 15. It’s a trip he said he plans on venturing once more this summer.

With his childhood experiences of traveling around the country and even to the Dominican Republic, Evans said he’s inspired to travel outside of the U.S. more in the future.

He said he chose UCM not for the tropical paradise of Warrensburg, but for the travel opportunities.

“I liked the study abroad options here,” Evans said. “I’ll probably just kind of go where the wind takes me I guess.”

Evans has learned to be adaptable from his childhood. He said having a lot of freedom as a kid really influenced who he has become today.

“Being able to make my own mistakes and learn from them,” Evans said. “I wasn’t always being told by my parents what would happen – that shaped me a lot.”

Bethany Sherrow can be reached on Twitter @bethsherrow or bcs33690@ucmo.edu.