Delaware Christian’s Zinn focuses on future

Ryan Zinn

Story and photo by

LIZ ROBERTSON

Senior year is going by quick with still lots to do for Delaware Chris­t­ian School’s Ryan Zinn.

“It’s going fast,” Ryan said, adding that he looks for­ward to prom and the annual senior trip. As class trea­surer, he will be respon­si­ble for col­lect­ing funds from class­mates for the trip.

This year, Ryan is cap­tain of the bas­ket­ball team, a sport he has played since the fifth grade, when he was liv­ing in China.

Ryan and his fam­ily moved to China from Ohio when he was in the sec­ond grade. While there he attended an inter­na­tional school with stu­dents from all over the world. Ryan has also been to Korea, Thai­land and about 20 states in the U.S. and “a lot of air­ports.” He moved back to Ohio the sum­mer before his junior year.

“I admit I miss it,” he said of China. “I miss my friends and the food.” Though com­ing back to the United States was not a total cul­ture shock for him as his fam­ily vis­ited the states every other sum­mer while they lived in China. “So it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Ryan said.

One admit­ted cul­ture shock, how­ever, involved get­ting used to a smaller city. His Chi­nese city is con­sid­ered small at 7 million.

“We lived on the 11th and 12th floor of an apart­ment build­ing, while here there is noth­ing over five sto­ries,” he said.

Get­ting used to the large num­ber of peo­ple in China took some doing. Now, back in Ohio, it is the reverse, with Ryan liv­ing in, by China’s stan­dards, a small community.

There is even a change in trans­porta­tion modes. In China, he would either bike or take the bus. Here, dri­ving is everywhere.

“Ryan Zinn is one of those stu­dents a teacher loves to have in class,” said DCS teacher Mary Ellen Tobin. “He is gifted in math (tak­ing AP Cal­cu­lus this year), works very hard, par­tic­i­pates in class and shows respect to all. Even more impor­tantly, Ryan demon­strates excel­lent char­ac­ter in his every­day life … with his fam­ily as well as when he leads his sports teams. His heart is to serve oth­ers. He has adapted well to Amer­ica after liv­ing in China and being the son of mis­sion­ar­ies. We will really miss him as he goes to col­lege next year.”

Ryan is plan­ning to attend Mount Ver­non Nazarene Col­lege. He has already been accepted and is now apply­ing for scholarships.

“I’m going to study phys­i­cal ther­apy. I’ve always been on the other side of PT with them help­ing me,” he said. The career choice would also allow him to remain con­nected to sports, he said, adding he has always enjoyed anatomy.

Ryan explained his attrac­tion to sports phys­i­cal ther­apy as a result of some­thing he went through him­self. He was injured while play­ing bas­ket­ball in China, break­ing his left elbow, shat­ter­ing it in two places. The doc­tor said he would never be able to play again. Ryan had a splint, with no surgery, for three months.

“I did get a full range of motion back from a ther­a­pist,” Ryan said. One doc­tor told Ryan that he recov­ered bet­ter than most, though he did switch from shoot­ing with his left hand to shoot­ing with his right.

Ryan made the switch to bas­ket­ball from soc­cer when he decided to try some­thing new, some­thing maybe he could beat his older brother at. While his brother ruled in soc­cer, Ryan found his niche in bas­ket­ball where he was able to beat his brother.

Ryan is not cer­tain if he will play bas­ket­ball in col­lege. His first pri­or­ity, he said, is rais­ing money to attend school. If he does not get enough schol­ar­ships, a job is a certainty.

Last year was his first year of track as there was no track team at his school in China. He was play­ing soc­cer for Delaware Chris­t­ian when his speed was noted. In track, he made it to Delaware County’s Elite Eight in 100-meter and 200-meter.

He may run track again this year, but is also con­sid­er­ing try­ing out for baseball.

Hav­ing been in Ohio the last two sum­mers, Ryan has worked both of them in a metal cut­ting shop in Kil­bourne. This com­ing sum­mer, while he plans to work as well, he hopes to spend time with his par­ents as they will be leav­ing next year to return to China for three years.

But until then, he is busy with classes tak­ing Bible, gov­ern­ment, Eng­lish, advanced place­ment cal­cu­lus, anatomy and physics. He has also com­peted in 4-H for the first time with beef feed­ers and lambs.

“I learned a lot about farm­ing. I learned a lot at the fair,” he said, refer­ring to two fourth place fin­ishes for his beef feeders.

Ryan also did some vol­un­teer work through 4-H. In China, he would vol­un­teer in the nurs­ery, work­ing mainly with the toddlers.

“I like lit­tle kids. They have a lot of energy, and are always smil­ing,” he said.

He envi­sions his future to be cen­tered around the cen­tral Ohio area with short-term trips to China.

“I think that is where God is call­ing me,” he said. Return­ing to work in the coun­try where he grew up will not be a prob­lem as he learned to speak Chi­nese when he first moved there in the sec­ond grade.

Ryan offers oth­ers the fol­low­ing advice on life.

“Don’t limit your­self to one world view per­spec­tive on life,” he said. With the mix of stu­dents from other coun­tries in his school in China, he learned what dif­fer­ent cul­tures are. “Peo­ple here do not real­ize what dif­fer­ence cul­tures are like.

“Also, don’t wish your life away. Make the most of the time you are given now. Sooner or later it will be time to go off to col­lege and you will won­der where the time went.”

Ryan is the son of Ed and Linda Zinn of Delaware.

Posted by Liz Robertson on Feb 3 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.