User:Pruisjr
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[edit] Birth
Joe was born to Allen and Nancy Pruis on January 3, 1987. He was the first baby born in Luverne, MN of the new year. His full name is Joseph Ryne Pruis. Since his father is a Reformed Church pastor and his mother was also very active in the Christian Faith, the name Joseph was chosen in honor of Jacob's son Joseph in the Old Testament. His middle name, Ryne is in honor of hall of famer Ryne Sandberg of the Chicago Cubs. Joe's father Al was always a lifelong cubs fan and wanted his son's middle name to be named after one of the greatest cubs ever to play. His mother on the other hand, thought Ryne Sandberg was cute.
[edit] The Early Years
Joe grew up in Edgerton, MN where his father was the senior pastor of First Reformed Church. Joe was then known as Joey, and would be known that until his high school years. Joe was the first born in the family, but he would soon have a friend to play with. On February 17, 1989 Lindsay Alice Pruis joined the family. The early years in MN were brought great joy and sorrow. Growing up, Joe was never afraid to meet new people. Every Sunday Joe helped Larry the church janitor in ringing the Sunday morning church bell. At the end of every church service when Al would go to the back of the sanctuary and shake hands, Joe would join his father in meeting and greeting people. Joe also was Al's sidekick when Al went to the local nursing home. Joe went along and let old women hold him in their laps and talk to them. However, the the early years weren't all fun and game. In 1991 Fred Pruis, Joe's grandfather died of renal failure. The only memory Joe has of his grandfather was his funeral. Joe recalls trying to wake him in his casket, but could not. He thought if he tickeled him he might wake up. He found out this did not work. This was the first time Joe dealt with death.
[edit] The First Move
In January of 1992, the Pruis family moved to Sheyboygan, WI Joe was 5, and Lindsay was 3. Joe finished pre-school in Sheboygan and moved on to elementary school. Joe attended Wilson Elementary School. While there, Joe recieved high marks in all of his courses. Lindsay did the same. Nancy started doing in-home day care which was great for the family. Joe had a mother who was home all the time. This proved to be an asset for Joe and Lindsay. Al had his work cut out for him at the church. Starting in the mid 90's, Bethany Reformed Church grew in numbers no one could have expected. It all started with a Saturday Night Ministry Al started. It was supposed to be a trial service, with a target audience of broken, addicted people. Little did he know that Saturday Night ended up being a major service reaching countless people in Sheboygan. With Al running the church, it proved useful to have Nancy running the home, and making sure she instilled a hard work ethic in her children relating to school. The late 90's brought about more changes in the church. John Kenny, a great friend of the family and on of Al's interns was called as Bethany's first associate pastor. His main focus was youth. With the growing size of the church, Bethany added on to the church.
[edit] The Middle School Years
Joe attended middle school at Farnsworth Middle School. Joe continued his percussion studies that he started in 5th grade at Wilson. 6th grade proved to be different from any education experience Joe recieved thus far. He quickly found out that teachers gave unwarented detentions all the time. Joe recieved 13 in 1 year (since that year, Joe has never served a detention sentence) Some of the most common reasons were being 30 sec. late to class or forgetting to bring a pencil. Even if one of Joe's friends offered him a pencil, his teachers still gave him detention. Joe's 7th and 8th grade years proved to be better. Joe was put in accelerated courses and quickly found out he along with his best friend Aaron Olsen were the 2 smartest kids in the grade. He also discovered he was well liked, popular one might say.
[edit] The Second Move
In the summer of 2000 Al had been taking secret trips (secret initially to Joe and Lindsay) to a church called Peace Reformed Church in Eagan, MN. The search committee was very interested in Al. Later, Joe and Lindsay were told as the process moved along. The entire family was flown out for a weekend trip to Peace and Al preached at 2 services. All went well. The whole family liked the area and everyone felt a move was coming. However, Al could not accept the call. He didn't feel God's timing was right. The Pruis family never understood why the process came so close and why so many closed doors were opened, only to not move. Joe continued on with his 8th grade year and had a great one. However, in the Spring of 2001, Al read a letter (as he always does when he has big news) to the family. It was a letter stating that through a series of events he was reconsidering the call to Peace. This time Al did accept the call and in August of 2001 the Pruis family left Sheboygan and moved to Eagan.
[edit] The High School Years
High school was a huge adjustment for Joe. For the first time in his life he changed his name from Joey to Joe. He also had to start all over again. Joe quickly found out that he wasn't the smartest, most popular, or best percussionist. In his first trimester at Eagan High School Joe was ignored, mocked and put down. The only thoughts Joe could think of was getting through high school and moving away from Eagan. Though Joe had a rough start, it was Eagan's band program and particually the Winter Drumline that Joe found his niche in. Joe played Timpani for Eagan Drumline for 3 years. All three of those years Eagan won State Championship in the hardest class and went to nationals all three of those years. Their first year they took 9th place at nationals, their second year they took 12th place at nationals and their third year they took 16th place (all three of those years they competed in the hardest class) Joe was also very involved with Jazz Band, Encore 04 (tech crew) Student Ambassadors, National Honor Society, Cross Country and most of all, his church. Joe was a children's church helper for 3 years and also helped out with vacation bible school for his first 2 years in the cities. He was very involved with his youth group, participating on 2 mission trips and 2 national youth conferences. In the summer of 2004 Joe found his first job at the City of Eagan in the Utilities department. He was busy all summer painting fire hydrants. In the fall of 2004 Joe became very involved with independent film projects with one of his best friends, Billy Meiklejohn. They started their own film company called Organized Clutter and made various comedy shorts for their youth group. Also in the fall of 2004, Joe decided to become a nurse. He checked out many colleges but decided on the University of Wisconsin-Eau claire
[edit] The College Years
[edit] Freshman Year
Joe's first year at college proved once again to be a challenge. Joe was used to starting over, however he had pressure to succede academically. Joe was told he needed at least a 3.6 GPA to be admitted into the College of Nursing. Joe surpassed that standard and achieved a 4.0 GPA for the whole year. To keep his sanity Joe took up the hobby of bowling. He also quickly formed an inner circle with the orginal three members being Corissa Niemi, Jill Hensiak and Kelly Anderson. These three people were Joe's anchor his first year at college. In the summer of 2006 Joe was admitted into the college of nursing. Also during that summer Joe took a Nursing Assistant/Home Health Aide course at Dakota County Techinical College. He was certified by the state of MN to be a Nursing Assistant/Home Health Aide. Joe was hired at the Commons on Marice assisted living facility and works in the memory care unit with his best friend Melanie Johnson. Melanie was in Joe's Nursing Assistant course at DCTC and they quickly became friends during the course.
[edit] Sophomore Year
The first semester of Joe's sophomore year was quite difficult. Anatomy and Physiology (semester 2 of the year long course) kept Joe in the open lab and library (5th floor) till the early hours in the morning. Even though this was one of Joe's toughest semesters, it was one of his best. Joe quickly became best friends with Katy Carlson, Emily Dohms, both 5th floor regulars and both in the nursing program with Joe. Joe went to Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship with these girls, and Joe was also in a bible study with Emily. Through Emily and Katy, Joe also met Rachel Hansen and Sally Gelhaus. Both became great friends of Joe. All in all, Joe had a wonderful semester he will never forget Joe's website is <a href=http://uwec.facebook.com/p.php?id=59506767&l=e5bf40770f>Facebook me!</a>
