CURRENT MISSION

To become a better storyteller, photographer, and videographer by traveling the world.

ABOUT ME

Oh man, this feels like a dating profile. So if you asked my friends about me, the first thing they'd probably tell you is that I'm thoughtful. I'm ok with that. I'd hope they'd also say I'm funny and adventurous, but I'll take thoughtful. I'm most happy when I'm meeting new people, and a successful night out can mean either a dance party until sunrise or just one great conversation (and of the two, I'll remember the conversation most fondly). The thing I appreciate most about myself is probably my versatility - I was the first person in my family to go to college and I'm now fortunate to associate myself with some incredibly bright and successful people; it's sad to think there's a language/culture barrier between classes in America, but there is one, and I'm proud of my ability to transcend it. I've worked for three years after university and am now taking one off to travel the world. Sometimes it feels like I'm faking adulthood, but then, I'm pretty sure everyone feels that way.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is really long. You guys know that? Like, really long. And I think it's important to keep this in mind, rather than that blatant lie of life being too short. I don't find that to be motivating at all. If I got hit by a bus tomorrow, I don't think I'd be worried about all the things I didn't get to do yet, like "Oh man, I'm really sad I never got to go skydiving!" or whatever. Plus, when you're dead, none of that matters anyway. So instead I keep telling myself that life is insanely, almost incomprehensibly long, and so, because of that, it's so important to live life the way that I actually want to live it. Instead of "Life's too short - better go skydiving," I think, "Man, life is way too long to continuously regret not doing something that would make me happy." (I use skydiving as an example because it just seems like one of those things everyone wants to do, "someday." I actually don't really care if I ever go skydiving or not). Anyway, I don't think I'm being very eloquent here, but that's just something I've been thinking about. We have to live the rest of our lives with the consequences of the things we decide today. That's not meant to be scary, and it shouldn't prevent us from taking risks at all. In fact, it should do the opposite. Hate your job? Leave it! Life's too long to be miserable all the time. Thinking about taking time off to travel? Do it! What's a year when you'll live, like, forever? Plus, you'll have a nearly infinite amount of time to appreciate and remember all the adventures you had (or an infinite amount of time to regret not taking an opportunity when you had one). Point is, we're constantly deciding what kind of life we'd like to have, and I think it's good to keep that in mind.

Interests

Travel, international relations, wartime literary non-fiction, cycling, photography, conversation, journaling, music. A good pen, a warm light, the interactions between humans and their environment.

• culture
• writing
• photography
• dancing
• environment
• partying
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• skydiving
• communications
• international relations

Music, Movies, and Books

Currently reading The Brothers Karamazov and loving it. Favorite book is The Little Price/Le Petit Prince; love Haruki Murakami, Kurt Vonnegut, and (somewhat despite myself) Ernest Hemmingway. I'd love to do what Mark Bowden does.
Music: Muse is my favorite band, though probably not representative of my overall taste in music. Interpol, Lost in the Trees, Beirut, Sigur Ros, Balmorhea, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire, The Frames and (why not) Lana Del Rey are among my top acts.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

My freshman summer at Dartmouth I biked across the United States with an organization called Bike and Build to raise money and awareness for affordable housing. I was on the Northern US route (there were 5 back then) with 28 other riders. We started in Portsmouth, NH and about 6500 km and 10 weeks later pedaled into Vancouver, BC. Along the way we donated more than $60,000 to affordable housing organizations, volunteered at 5 build sites, met tons of people from across the country and spread the word of our mission, and learned important things about ourselves and each other. It was an amazing way to spend a summer.

Teach, Learn, Share

Happy to teach you everything I know about photography and bike maintenance. And Mitch Hedberg jokes. I also manage the social media for my office and would be glad to exchange ideas on building web presence. Finally, I've been fortunate to do a fair bit of traveling and will be thrilled to regale you with stories from the Balkans (I'll almost definitely try to convince you to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Singapore, an absolutely fascinating country in its own right.

I always welcome help with my writing :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Malaysia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Taiwan

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United States