My name is Sam. I am from New Hyde Park, Long Island. I was born in Doha, Qatar and immigrated to America when I was 3 years old. My favorite sports are football and basketball. I was on the varsity team for both sports in high school. One of my passions is music and mixing. I initially started playing the trumpet and eventually learned to play the guitar. I currently mix audio at my friend’s audio company that does live sound mixing at conferences and concerts.
One of my favorite places to hang out when I was in high school was our local Panera Bread. After our classes were done, we would rush over to Panera Bread as fast as we could. Sometimes we would set up a game of basketball or football before we went to Panera Bread so that we would actually be hungry by the time we got there. This store was in a prime location because there were many other types of cuisines located near by. So each person would order whatever they wanted, whether it be Italian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, or Southern, and sit in Panera Bread and eat. Panera Bread was the place that all of our friends would talk, eat and do homework together. If we had finals or midterms coming up, we would all go to Panera Bread and study there. After we ate and attempted to some work, we would always go to a frozen yogurt store around the corner and get something.
This Panera Bread was special to me because it brought my friends and I closer to each other. We would hang out and make fun of each other here for hours and hours. Even after it closed for the night, we would walk around town for a while. Panera Bread is where we would go to decompress and relieve some stress. If one of us was having a tough time in a class or in our personal lives, everyone would be there to support each other.
