Growing up, it was about finding a way to entertain myself outdoors. We spent all the summers on the beach, camping with my family a bunch, and traveling as much as we could. My parents wouldn't let me watch too much TV growing up or play video games, or anything like that.

Stephen Colletti

Categorized in : Me Myself Parents Family

My mom calls me 'baby face.' It's very embarrassing.

Stephen Colletti

mom faces baby

I love flying and kind of just fascinated with it, and to fly something like an F-22 would be a blast.

Stephen Colletti

flying kind would-be

Top Gun was one of my favorite movies growing up.

Stephen Colletti

growing growing-up gun

Who I was back then, when I started on 'One Tree Hill,' is so different from who I am now. Coming off Laguna, being 19 years old, and thrown into this odd, ridiculous spotlight, wasn't for me. There have always been haters, and people don't want to give you a chance or the benefit of the doubt, but this show gave me an opportunity.

Stephen Colletti

i-am me you tree

Things don't just fall into place because you have a dream. You're always going to have those negative thoughts. Our minds love to play with us - we're going to be our own worst critics - but I just say to myself, 'File it back.' I just try to bring any negative thoughts to light and deal with them, so I can file them away.

Stephen Colletti

thoughts myself light love

My costar James Lafferty, and his little brother Stuart Lafferty, and another buddy of ours, Ian Shive, are working on this project called 'Generation Wild.' It's about getting people to realize that being outdoors is not scary - you can go on adventures like we do, in national parks, and practically in your own backyard.

Stephen Colletti

generation you brother people

It's hard because people always say, 'Follow your dreams,' but it's not a perfect world, and things don't always work out. But you've just got to work hard, and you can't take things for granted.

Stephen Colletti

dreams you work people

I grew up in Orange County, without a team. I never affiliated myself with the Chargers, south of me, or the Raiders, north of me. I've always followed the Dallas Cowboys. I've been a huge fan since the early '90s.

Stephen Colletti

never myself me team

I'm an adrenaline junkie. I love climbing crazy trees or cliffs, which doesn't make my mom very happy.

Stephen Colletti

crazy mom happy love

Acting is fun, and if you enjoy doing it, you should take it seriously and see what you can do.

Stephen Colletti

doing you enjoy fun

'One Tree Hill' gave me my first shot into acting, and they gave me the biggest chance, and that's something that I'll always respect and be grateful for.

Stephen Colletti

me respect grateful tree

If I wasn't acting, I would be trying to break into acting.

Stephen Colletti

would acting break trying

Acting was something I did growing up. I never it took it too seriously; it was just one of those things I got into high school and was like, 'Nah, I don't want to continue acting.' Cause I got into it professionally by local theater, and from there, I just decided to do sports and be more a high school kid and have my fun.

Stephen Colletti

high-school fun sports school

Working on 'Laguna' was great because just being in production and shooting stuff and having to go back and relive some things, and there were some lines here and there that the producers would want us to say, and just kind of, you're forced to recreate moments, and just working on the show was so much fun.

Stephen Colletti

great you moments fun

Acting is fun, and if you enjoy doing it, you should take it seriously and see what you can do. It's been a blast, and so you know it was kind of like a test for me to move to L.A. and start studying and see how much I was really into it. Cause I wasn't gonna do it if I wasn't 100% committed.

Stephen Colletti

me you enjoy fun

I remember girls watching it in high school, and I thought the basketball part of the show was cool. And lo and behold, a few years later, I found myself in 'Tree Hill' land.

Stephen Colletti

myself cool tree school

I was fooled a bit during 'Laguna Beach.' I was 17, 18 years old, and I thought they just wanted to shoot a documentary, and that it probably wouldn't end up anywhere, anyway. Little did we know about the power of editing. I had no idea that it was going to be the soap drama that it was, but I picked up on that pretty quickly.

Stephen Colletti

end power editing beach

I've always been adventurous. In the summertime, my mom would lock me outside of the house and say, 'Do something, and come back later.'

Stephen Colletti

back me mom house

I was a very spastic kid who loved to see how high he could climb a tree. That's just the way I've always been.

Stephen Colletti

climb loved tree way

I'm the type of guy if there's a haunted hotel in town, I'm staying there and will stay up all night waiting to get the crap scared out of me.

Stephen Colletti

me hotel waiting night