I wake up in the morning to cultivate happiness, whether that be in myself an others. I'm a storyteller, so I bring together the chaos of this world and the human experience into stories that allow us to see the brilliance in our lives. I strive to liberate others from ideas of the world that limit their ability to love it.

My work is in building the collective community stories we like to call "culture," and I carry the idea of culture building around with me wherever I go. I'm always the one to stick my foot in the cold water first if I have to be, and that goes for being literally the first person to jump in the water, to being the first person who is willing to get personal, to being the person who needs to start singing in public just to let everyone know it's alright to do that. I design new normals. I'm also a musician, a speaker coach, someone who can help you find your why, a healthy chef, a conference builder, a writer, and so many other random things.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Isn't this the best way to travel? What better way to understand the culture of an area then to stay on someone's couch and live in their space for a bit. As someone who is trying to rip apart what I find to be normal, there really is no better way to travel then to jump right in with locals around the world.

Interests

• writing
• poetry
• design
• graphic design
• photography
• cooking
• meditation
• reading
• jazz
• piano
• anthropology
• biology
• neuroscience
• storytelling
• buddhism
• poetry slam
• community building
• vegetarian cooking
• vegan cooking
• tedx
• ted talks
• songwriting
• healthy cooking
• branding
• evolutionary biology
• tibetan buddhism

Music, Movies, and Books

For Music I'm such a mixed bag... From Miles Davis to Erykah Badu to John Legend to John Mayer to Sam Smith to Otis Redding, I just love a beautiful tune. Grew up in a household where no one listened to anything off the radio, but I used to sneak old school and underground hip-hop onto my old iPod while no one was looking. And of course, as a kid from New England growing up in the late 90's and early 2000's, I had a strong affection towards the alternative rock scene. The underground rap artists found a way to convey how I felt my struggle was and the angsty teenage agitation of the alternative scene gave me the chance to see that other people had no idea what was going on in their lives either. Fell in love with John Mayer as I learned guitar and found my voice. Learned to love Jazz after a mentor of mine taught me about the message Jazz gives you every time you listen, and I fell in love with the stories in all the old records. Learned to love ballads as I found my way as an artist on the piano. Now I'm a big ol' mixed bag of love for all things music, but I have such a strong love for a great message and a beautiful musical idea.

When it comes to books, It'd be hard for me to give you anything concrete. Used to hate books, but then one day I heard some brilliant guy on a podcast talking about creativity and being messy. I found this guy and learned he had a big book on all of the things he was talking about, so I bought it. After reading it I couldn't believe how much brilliance could be packed in between two covers. I've been hooked ever since. My favorite books (mostly because they absolutely rocked my world at the time and gave me an entirely new way to view the world) would more than likely be Deviate (Beau Lotto), Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari), Behave (Robert Sapolsky), The Art of Asking (Amanda Palmer), and Happiness (Matthieu Ricard).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Dropped out of college to build a learning portfolio. I'm an instigator and a creative rebel of sorts, and I got tired of the out-dated method of education, so I'm blazing my own trail (and hopefully bringing the mindset to many others). It's built on learning from immersion: finding the people who are doing what I aspire to do so much better than I can and learning while I work alongside them. It's like an apprenticeship, accept I bounce around a lot, immersing myself in many different spaces and wearing a lot of hats.

What I Can Share with Hosts

How to cook delicious, easy, healthy food for super cheap; The Art of Meditation; Insights on our place in the cosmos; consulting on culture building; loving company.

Countries I’ve Visited

Dominican Republic

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States