ABOUT ME

I can be pretty different. I like a lot of different topics. I grew up in an area where education was not very important, but I grew up in a family where education is very important so I do not always feel like I can just "fit in" with a group of people. I very much enjoy talking to people, but I like to do it more when it is with the intention of learning about one another or exploring topics more so than when it is about trying to get attention for one's self.

I am not sure what other people would have to say about me. I hope it would be that I am honest and overall nice. I can get pretty intense and heady, but when I do so, it is because I am focused on something I think is important and will benefit not just myself necessarily, but my community, or people around me.

I can be pretty quiet, but I do think that education and society are two important complements and that it is very important to have understanding among people in a community. I find this especially true having grown up in the rural south where there can be a lot of stereotyping and little effort to understand issues or people in more detail, which would allow for more harmony and, I think, a healthier and more vibrant culture.

Interests

I very much enjoy reading. I have subscriptions to the Week and the New Yorker. I think the New Yorker gets just absolute writers and I learn so much from that weekly about a range of topics. Also, I like watching the occasional News Hour.

Normally, I love having conversations with people about what they do. I could do this more so when I was living in Dallas, TX, where I was studying music at Southern Methodist University. However, I now live in Young Harris, GA with a population of about 800 people. It is very hard to meet regularly with people that are young and very focused on what they do here. There is not quite the sort of professionalism and passion here in north Georgia as there was in Dallas.

I think that is why I so much enjoy reading the New Yorker because it gives me a chance to reconnect with people's ideas that are exciting and push boundaries of culture, or expose aspects of culture that can be difficult to breach with people reluctant to do so be it out of complacency or a comfortableness with their own life.

I do keep up with people from over the years occasional with the phone, but it is hard when I do not live close to them to keep such relationships. At the very least, it has taught me to have a certain degree of patience!

Despite it's lack of people, Young Harris is an absolutely beautiful area of the world. Very green. I think this area of Georgia/North Carolina is one of the most bio-diverse locations in the continental United States. I very much enjoy being able to take walks around this area. There is a college here, Young Harris College, and so I take some classes and am involved with the music ensembles.

The music program is steadily growing. I play with a brass quintet and think that we are rather quite good all things considered.

• culture
• singing
• concerts
• education
• news
• reading
• music
• teaching

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Going to South by South-West in Austin, TX. I went with a friend who really knew the music scene and we got to see a ton of amazing concerts at basically no cost. It was more or less a great spiritual experience. Just everyone there being in such peace. Really awesome.

Hearing Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. I had some stuff happen while I was in school in Dallas such as a bout with cancer, and a good friend's brother dying to cancer that really showed me the frailty of life. That concert with Jaap Van Zweden conducting absolutely moved me. I think another reason it was so impactful was me being able to sing the work with a choir a couple years previously and knew the music very well.

There are probably another thing or two that were pretty awesome, but I can't think of anything. For whatever reason, I guess music is pretty big for me.

Countries I’ve Visited

China, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States