CURRENT MISSION

To begin to understand you to begin to understand me to begin to understand how we connect

ABOUT ME

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My friends have expressed gratitude towards me for doing my best to see a situation from the points of view of each person involved. I am the sum total of the life experiences of one person, myself, and to restrict my perception of the world to just this one sum of experiences seems wasteful when there are so many other sum totals of different life experiences walking around. In the musical groups that I play in, I've slipped into the role of band psychologist, trying to understand how everyone can at once feel free, expressive, accepted, wanted, and to all feel that we are both project creators and project enhancers at once, and I love this process of discovery.
My friends have expressed gratitude towards me for enjoying the process of making sure that everyone in the room feels comfortable--not so much with things like making sure they have a drink or a comfortable chair, but by trying to act towards them in such a way that allows them to feel the freedom to let their personalities breathe in the company of others, without restriction or fear of mistakes.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have couchsurfed along a few bike trips and some other adventures! I have only had great experiences -- what a fantastic community.

Interests

I am interested in the connections that humans can experience with each other, and especially in how music can create or enhance these connections. I am living in Cincinnati right now where I teach musicianship and bucket drumming at a free youth orchestra program. I love hearing new sounds, classic old sounds, any kinds of beautiful sounds, and seeing people who believe in their sounds so much that the truth of their feelings radiates and fills the room. I enjoy music and make music, but I try to do this with the goal of becoming part of something bigger than myself. I am obsessed with the earth and the colors and scents and sounds and sensations that it can bring to us for no cost at all, and how the different senses interact to create associations and memories and experiences that make us who we are. I just finished college and want to embrace the freedom that I feel and see how other communities/cities/states/countries operate and how this is reflected in the personality and daily actions of an individual. I want to meet more people who are different from myself and understand what makes us different and what makes us the same, and to develop more of an understanding of how I might want to fit myself into the world.

Music, Movies, and Books

Love so much music! Some of my very favorite artists are Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead, Beirut, Bon Iver, The Avett Brothers, and Arcade Fire.

Books: love David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

Movies: The Shawshank Redemption.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I stayed in a pink hotel called "La Villa" on a mountain in Spoleto, Italy for a summer while I had the privilege of playing in an orchestra there. There was a very popular trail up the mountain, with a beautiful monastery as well as some great restaurants at the top of the trail. One day I began up the trail in the afternoon, and once I arrived at the area with the monastery, I was curious about what else was up there, so I began to follow a road that seemed to go up (one of my guidelines in Europe was: if you have the opportunity to go higher up, whether a staircase, a ramp, or another mountain, take it!). This road curved upward and led to another area of the mountain called Patrico, and I could see a peak in a distance that I wanted to get to, so I continued on this road for a few hours, never knowing if the peak would be beyond that next curve at the end of the portion of the road that I could see. Eventually the land became steeper, and I left the road to cut through the field next to it. At the top of this field was a spacious forest that was smaller than it seemed, because I was quickly on the other side of it. Once I exited the forest, I looked down the other side of this mountain I had just climbed to see forests and fields that led to other mountains far in the distance. Behind me was the side of this mountain that contained the city of Spoleto, and in front of me was a complete absence of civilization. It was vast and peaceful. I could hear a single cricket from another mountain across the way. There was still broad daylight, but the moon began to appear above that mountain in the distance. It was full, and rising quickly. In a short while, I was alone on top of a mountain with a full moon to my left and the sun shining to my right amidst a still blue sky.
I have had instances of feeling intimate with the moon while alone at night, or with the sun at sunrise, but this was my first experience with feeling like I was a part of a crew that included the sun and the moon. They were both personalities, and I was a third. I have never felt so close to the universe. I breathed this in until the sun began to disappear behind the city of Spoleto, which then became visible without the harsh rays from the sun. The city at sunset had an intricacy about it that I had not been able to notice while living within it, and it simmered in the glare of the passing sun. Then the moment broke, and I raced the escaping light down the path that had taken me hours to climb, to avoid becoming stranded on a mountain in the dark of night. I returned to this spot on the top of that mountain on my last night in Spoleto, but the sun and the moon were on different schedules then.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Italy, Puerto Rico, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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