CURRENT MISSION

not waiting for the storm to pass, learning to dance in the rain.

ABOUT ME

What would my best friends say about me? Well.. A golden retriever at heart. I love life, to its fullest and cannot stop chasing the tennis balls life throws at me. Genuine, loving, respectful human being. I love sharing passion! Experiencing the subtle joys of the universe may be my favorite thing in the world. Everything just seems to be awesome. My best friends would also say, I like to do everything, all the time, all at the same time. I've been working on pacing myself though.

PHILOSOPHY

boiling down my philosophy?
i'll give two quotes, the first was given to me by my grandfather (if it helps read the quote in an old raspy voice, it sounds more wisdom-ic.)

"In your mind, is a place to make a heaven out of a hell, or a hell out of a heaven."

second quote i got off of phil's wall, and later found in a chinese proverb.

"look to this day, for it is life, the very LIFE of life! yesterday is only a dream, and tomorrow only a vision. but today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope."

basically... be here now, be somewhere else later. could be my general philosophy.

i live my life to make the world a better place. sometimes i do that in some unconventional ways, like smiling or wearing fake mustaches around - but its pretty much that simple.

my broader stance on how i make the world a better place is by education, specifically experiential. ive been pretty into the idea of providing opportunities for others to discover their passions lately - so far nothing bad has come of it.

我为什么加入 Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

where am i? here.
what time is it? now.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

i havnt had any yet! but i look forward to! ive only heard great things

兴趣

life, first of all, super interested in that. i love rock climbing, hiking, being outside, slack lining, watching movies when i need to be lazy. basically just raging the excess gnarr that is available in this world. my main interest in life is to provide opportunities for others to discover or explore their passions.

• animals
• dancing
• education
• modeling
• movies
• juggling
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• camping
• rock climbing
• tennis
• teaching

我做过的一件不可思议的事情

I worked for an organization called SOAR leading back country expeditions for kids with learning disabilities. This particular story, is about the last day of camp, after 18 days of amazing, challenging, frustrating, rewarding days. Waking my kids up at 3am is not an easy task, especially when you have a kid who says he is a hibernating grizzly bear and wont get out of his sleeping bag on a regular day. However, this particular day was airport day. Airport day requires 4 hours of driving, 2 hours of packing and unpacking, 1 hour of eating, and hours of getting your kids to the correct terminal with their correct baggage. The kicker, is the massive transition these little animals are going through, the transition from SOAR to HOME. For some psychological reason, any transition time you have is when all of the behavioral issues happen. As tempting as it is, I wont digress from my point and go into all of the information on how to be most efficient and minimize transition time on airport day. SO, we were in the 15 passenger van, and I was driving. Come 6:30am my campers wake, and start fighting. The words that are coming out of these kids mouths remind me of what comes out of an old septic tank. More importantly, some of my kids are getting aggravated at other kids behaviors and the frustration is brewing. (I later get reprimanded for not pulling over, during LAX rush hour, and solving these issues, but am also expected at the same time to get my kids to their flights on time.) The tension is HIGH in the van, and my camper in the front seat who I can see getting aggravated is looking to me for model behavior. I however, am looking in my side view mirror at my friend driving his tension filled van of campers behind me. We are making funny faces at each other, laughing, being jovial. My camper looks at me and asks, “what are you doing?” I think to my self for a quick second, and realize the gravity of his question but more so my answer. I reply, “Dude, I’m making a heaven, out of a hell. NOT, a hell out of heaven” His facial expression changed, and he took my iPod, chose a song, and started smiling.

It's that one moment, the moment you change the lens that someone sees life through from red, blue, brown or black to a lens of clarity. Learning to dance in the rain, wake up and smile instead of groan or choose to make yourself happy instead of sad - those are the moments. When you bring that tiny infinitesimal moment to someone else, your life feels whole.

教，学，和分享

i can teach a lot related to climbing - anything from anchor systems to rescuing a climber. i co-taught some courses at my college (Top Rope Site Management, Challenge Course Facilitation, Rock Climbing 101). I got my degree in Outdoor Leadership with a focus in Experiential Education. So teaching, learning, and sharing is definitely my thing.

I can teach you how to juggle to! And tie a whole buncha knots that could possibly save your life?

我游览过的国家

Canada, Ireland, United States

我居住过的国家

United States