Meet Miguel Villegas, Sales Engineer

 

Miguel Villegas is truly a dynamic character. One of the most recent additions to the FastServers.Net Sales Team, Miguel has an extensive background in a variety of hobbies. He is a 2nd degree black belt in Hapkido and practiced the art from the age of five to twenty years old. He was a part of the Mid West Circuit tournament system in Chicago, and as he got older, moved over to the AKA nationals. "When it comes to performance and events, my strongest focus was on fighting," said Miguel. "My talent in fighting may be due to the fact that I am small-framed, extremely fast, and great with my legs."

Weapons were also a significant part of Miguel's training. He spent many years studying how to use both the boa and broadsword for combat fighting. "I studied just about every instrument, but my two favorites were the boa and broadsword," said Miguel. "I also think my skills as a gymnast helped me be able to do tumbling techniques with those weapons during kata." You read that correctly. Miguel used to practice gymnastics in addition to martial arts. He's no longer performing any tumbling, but often reminisces about doing floor routines as a gymnast. "I use to love floor routines and I can still do splits (both American and Chinese) and my agility and flexibility are also still a significant part of my overall fitness," said Miguel.

Miguel's passion is now devoted to photography. In fact, his favorite photograph is the Life Magazine "VJ Day Sailor" photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on August 14, 1945 after World War II. "This photo is absolutely my favorite photograph ever taken," said Miguel. "It was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Actually, I was able to view some of the original negatives and prints of that series because I know his great nephew, Kevin Eisenstaedt, who resides here in Chicago." Prior to coming on board at FastServers.Net, Miguel spent the last four years doing portraits. He also took several photography classes while studying Political Science at DePaul University.

His previous experience also included political consulting where he worked on various campaigns that were usually in the hardball political arena. "Much of what I did there in terms of data entry and such was often shrouded in secrecy," said Miguel. "I can say that it was an experience that I'll never forget. I think it helps that I earned my degree in Political Science from DePaul University." Miguel also earned a minor in Women's Studies from DePaul. "I took Women's Studies classes because it was a vast explanation of knowledge of history. It focused on history as well as waves of feminist and social movements throughout various societies around the world over the last several centuries."

When Miguel's not spending time at the FastServers.Net office, answering phones, working on tickets, or in sales meetings, he's playing Final Fantasy, engaging in philosophical conversations, and traveling to warmer climates with his friends. His favorite character in Final Fantasy is Cloud and he thinks the variations of Shiva are fun to check out. We asked Miguel what if he remembers a particular challenging philosophical debate between himself and another contender. "I have never considered one particular conversation as the most challenging over another," said Miguel. "Most challenging conversations for me, by far, are the ones where I can have a philosophical debate with a person that is not open to any form of dialogue and does not have factual knowledge on a particular topic."

Based on what we gathered from speaking to Miguel, he believes in arguments where the slightest mark is left on either party, be it a positive or negative and influential statement. And when Miguel's not trying to win a debate over life's social inequities, you can find him somewhere in Sonoma, sipping on wine, and reading a good book, magazine or any kind of literature he can get a hold of, while sitting between two apple trees. Miguel said, "When I'm in Sonoma, sitting between the apple trees, and sipping on a glass of wine, life is perfect."