Sky Chadde's Profile

I like telling stories, so let me tell you a little of mine:

After I was born on a summer's day in rural Wisconsin, my dad walked into the room and announced to my mom that he was scrapping the name they had agreed upon earlier if I had turned out to be a boy (which I did). He told her my name was "Sky." She loved it. Personally, I like it a heckuva lot more than "Fritz."

My dad has never truly given me a good, solid reason as to why he pounced on those three letters. His answers keep changing. Once, he told me it was because we were moving to Montana - Big Sky Country - three weeks after I was born. Another time he told me it was because his favorite musician, Jimi Hendrix, called his backup band at Woodstock the "Electric Sky Church."

Whatever his reasoning, he set me up for a life of people asking if my name was short for something or if it was a nickname, and me gleefully telling them "No, it's on my birth certificate."

I now hail from Socorro, New Mexico, where I attended high school. I played football (tight end and defensive end) and my team came within seven minutes of winning a state title when I was a senior.

My younger brother now plays basketball at Lamar Junior College in Lamar, Colo. My beautiful mom is an elementary school teacher and my smart-as-a-whip dad is a computer science instructor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology ("Tech" for short).

I wrote for the education beat, specifically K-12, here at the Missourian during the fall of 2012. If you want to contact me about any of the stories below, please email me at skychadde@gmail.com.