Matt Knooihuizen

Sparta High School

Class of 2008

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First Name	Matt
Last Name	Knooihuizen
Graduation Year	Class of 2008
Gender	Male
Current Location	Sparta, Michigan
Hometown	Sparta, Michigan
Relationship Status	Single
About Me	I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on the 17th July, 1989. I'm the youngest of four; I have one older brother and two older sisters. There is Ben (3 years older), Becka (4 years older to the day), and Liz (6 years older). For the first couple years of my life I grew up in East Martin, Michigan next to my grandma's house. When I was 2 years old, I chased one of my cats up a 24 foot ladder and fell off of it and landed on cement just missing a spike of cement sticking out of it nearly ending my life. My mom was in the basement of the house and heard me crying my little head. She yelled at my dad to go and check on, because she hurt her back and couldn't move that well. Well, my dad thought I just wanted attention and didn't check on me. After a few minutes of me still crying my mom had to crawl up the stairs and finally checking on me. So I was rushed to the hospital, I had a huge black eye and a small scar on my left eyebrow. Ever since then, I was had a small mental handicap from that, but not enough of a handicap for government help. A few months after that I heard my parents "debating" and it woke me up, then came the divorce, so my dad moved out and into his mom's house, right next door. My life went on as normal as it could be, with visiting my dad every other weekend and holidays, until I was either 18 or finished high school. When I was 8 years old. My brother and I decided to have some fun and cut some tall grass with big garden scissors. Well, Ben started to cut faster and faster, and he went to fast and cut my right hand's middle and ring fingers. On my ring finger's top knuckle, the first joint below the nail, was cut to the bone and had a little bit of skin still attached. On my middle finger's middle knuckle was cut right on the blood vein, and the blood was flowing out like a fountain. My sisters quickly grabbed a washcloth and put pressure and my hand and call my dad. I then was rushed to the doctor's office, and waited like.... ummm.... 30 minutes-ish. I got 7 stitches on my ring finger and 3 on my middle finger; to this day I can see the marks. I'm told that Ben got punished badly for it. I finished 1st grade in East Martin Christian School. Then that summer my mom decided to move to Dry Ridge, Kentucky. When I started 2nd grade there I was nervous and shy about meeting new friends, because I didn't know anyone there didn't know their scheduling system it was different. Thankfully in 2nd grade you aren't worried about who's popular and who wasn't. So, I made new friends and life went on, with still visiting my dad every other weekend and holidays. An 6 hour drive is never fun. I had to go to Speech Therapy a few times a week and got tested on to make sure my mental status from my fall wasn't effecting on my brain's development. I started 3rd grade with some of my new friends and I asked mom if I could tryout for a basketball team seeing my brothers and sisters played basketball. So I was on the team, but found out I was having a hard time with it because I'm left handed and the coach wanted me to use my right hand for practice. So I tried and tried, sure I wasn't the best with my right hand I slowly got better. Meanwhile in school we were starting to write in cursive, I had one of the neatest handwriting in the class. Come November my grades started to fall and my teacher that I couldn't pay on the team for the next game what she didn't know I already quitted the basketball because I couldn't get better. And this was due to the fall with my brain not being able to progress everything as fast as the other players. So that was the end of my basketball skill, but still played it around the house with the family. My mom met someone and over Christmas break we yet again moved, this time back into Michigan. THANK GOD! We move to a small town named Harrison right around Big Rapids. My dad got a court order saying my mom couldn't move out of state again until we were finished with school. So new school means Matt needs to make new friends again; by this time my dad was already seeing someone and they had got married. I was okay with this because I had fun with my 3 new stepsisters, it was a blust. So I finished 3rd grade, and guess what we moved again. Mom ended the relationship with the guy she met. Things weren't working out between them, plus some of her jewelry went missing and was never to be found again. So we moved to a village name Sparta this only being an hour away from dad's new house that I somewhat help build, well as best as an 11 year old could. So school started and time yet again to make new friends. Right before school started I said to mom, "I don't want to move again. Let's stay here please," and she listened. I finally got comfortable and started to make friends again with going to Speech Therapy still. Life was going good and everything. When I hit the 9th grade I was able to see my brother in school because it was in the same building, which was somewhat cool. Then it hit a brick wall. My sister (Becka) started to have a lot of arguments with mom and what not. So, she moved down to my dad's house with my brother (Ben) and it was me, mom, and Liz who finished high school and was starting to go to MSU, Michigan State University. GO GREEN!!!!! And this tore a whole inside me, my family was falling apart. But I kept on moving forward. After, my first year of high school there was this girl I had a crush on during middle school and found out that she recently broke up with her ex. So that summer I typed a letter asking her out and sprayed it with some of my mom perfume, and hid the letter in a necklace box that had a necklace of a shark's tooth. The next day she said no, she was very nice about it. So the state required one gym class so I took a gym class after a few months I was started to build some muscle. That weekend, Ben called me gay because of it, to this day I have no idea why he said that to his own brother. Towards the end of 10th grade, I started to find myself more attracted to guys than girls, but I kept it to myself and didn't say anything and acted straight it. In the 11th Grade, I had done an presentation so the which of it was video taped. A few days later my teacher played it back in front of the whole class for everyone to give feedback, but when they heard my voice because it changes when it's recorded they ALL laughed at me. From that day on I kept to myself. I didn't talk much became even more of a loner. Come the last year of high school. Sparta had just finished building the new high school and my class was the first to graduate from it, but I wasn't happy that year. It was because of my grandpa dying that November. I would have been the last of the grand kids to graduate, at his funeral I didn't cry through the service. But when we went to the grave site and I saw the finally resting place for him, I start to tear up not of sadness but of fire and anger. My eyes were so red. So life went on, my grandma hard it the hardest after being married for over 60 years and losing him; she really really missed him like we all did. So I graduated and my grandma was there and I was what happy. Come that summer Liz was getting married on the 19th of July. Man that was fun; Liz why couldn't you pick another date? lol That September, I finally got a job at Target as an Sales Associate. I was so happy for my first paycheck. A few months later mom called the cops on me for domestic violence for not doing everything that she wanted. From then on my relationship with her nose dived south and hard. With still hiding myself from everyone, I finally came out. Mom wasn't happy about this because she was raised by the bible, but I never told my grandma because we each passing month I could see in her eyes that she wanted to give up on her current life and be reunited with her husband. So I attempted to have a relationship with a guy, but didn't work well he was way way to needy. I didn't like that, I don't mind some neediness but not like 24/7. I made some friends at work: Country, Abby, Evan, Kelly, Kelly, Jeffrey, Brandon, and many more. Most of them I hinted at about me being gay, but I trust them enough not to gossip to the whole world about it. On September 11, 2011 was a very very sad for me, my grandma had passed away. It wasn't the way we hope every elderly person would go. She passed away from an urinary track infection,...(read more)