Hola! Soy Patrick (some friends call me Loren, an abbreviation of my middle name). I like to giggle, play frisbee, hike, love, and lean into feelings.

I grew up, not knowing any other way, chasing the "american dream". AKA chasing the dollar and caring only about my self. I happily skipped out on experiences - like travel - and deep friendships in order to work more, advance my career, and make a lot of money... so I could feel important and so I could buy a lot of crap that doesn't make anybody happy.

I knew I wasn't happy, but I was too scared to do anything about it. Until, starting about 5 years ago, with the help of therapy and some really amazing loved ones, I slowly started to love and accept my true self, and slowly stopped living the lie.

I started traveling only 2 years ago, with my first trip being 28 days in Nepal. Wow. Now every time I experience new people in a new place I am furthered even more from the person I used to pretend to be. Empathy is quite a wonderful thing!

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

I'm late to the Couchsurfing way of life, having stayed in far too many AirBnBs and hostels because reaching out and staying with somebody in a more intimate setting is vulnerable and therefore scary. But recently I've realized that scary vulnerability is a magical thing! Entonces... I'm on Couchsurfing to be connected to people - and therefore place - when I travel. Because staying at an AirBnb every night is isolating, lonely, disconnected, and deflates most of the joys of what I'm seeking when I travel.

Intereses

• basketball
• ultimate frisbee
• disc golf
• frisbee

Música, películas y libros

Favorite recent books are Octavia Butler's two Earthseed books (Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents). Holy cow... these are both incredible fiction books AND basically wonderful self-help books at the same time.

Right now I'm reading "El Machismo Invisible" by Marina Castañeda. Yay for learning Spanish and exploring feminism at the same time!

Algo increíble que he hecho

I was recently fired from my job in Artificial Intelligence (as a Machine Learning Engineer) because I refused to work on a government drone strike project. I knew that this was going to get me fired, and I stood up for my beliefs anyway, and I'm quite proud of this. Now I'm looking for a way to exit tech entirely, as I much more deeply enjoy connecting with people and things in the real, physical world. But I don't yet know what this path looks like. So for the time being I'm doing freelance development work for a non-profit company in Canada.

At the same time I'm incredibly fearful for the future impact that tech will have on this planet and its inhabitants, and so part of me is considering staying in tech in but in a tech-empathy-advocacy sort of role, so that the people with this amazing technological power can better understand what they're doing and the impact they're capable of having, so that they can see that we're all humans, that we're all in this together, and that nobody benefits when we act with greed and fear.

Enseña, aprende, comparte

Teach: I can teach you how to throw a frisbee really far (and I always carry one in my backpack)! Also I love to help people practice English!

Learn: Más que cualquier otra cosa en este momento, quiero continuar practicando español. He estudiado la idioma para 5 semanas en Montevideo, Uruguay y 4 semanas en CDMX, México... y estoy super emocionado porque finalmente puedo hacer conversaciones! Y finalmente no necesito Google Translate para escribir cosas como eso. Pero en el mismo tiempo tengo MUCHO más que aprender y practicar.

Share: I'd most love to share a deep conversation. About you, me, our dreams, our fears, our pasts, and our presents. Maybe over a cup of coffee or a meal that we make together.

Países que he visitado

Argentina, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Mexico, Nepal, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, United States, Uruguay