CURRENT MISSION

To keep this love affair with life and the world alive. To encourage others to do the same. Live to be free, beyond anticipation and hesitation.

ABOUT ME

Let's just start this off with: I am in love with life. I live to be on the road meeting new people, challenging myself and exploring the vastness of our third planet home. I rarely turn down an adventure and won't hesitate to drop everything familiar in pursuit of the unknown.

"Nothing is more dangerous within a mans adventurous spirit than a secure future."-----Jon Krakauer

I've got an affinity for chaos and disaster and thus have found a calling in disaster chasing. I enjoy all aspects of this including the science of weather to the practicalities of helping a community in the aftermath. Soon, hopefully, I will be pursuing a degree in nursing in hopes to use those skills to help in the wake of a disaster or in a developing country somewhere.

My friends know me as a volunteer junkie and everyone jokes that I totally have a bleeding heart. While this may be partially true, we all owe it to each other to do our part, right?

The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade we will not sit.

-----Nelson Henderson

PHILOSOPHY

So I walk like I'm on a mission
cause that's the way I groove
I got more and more to do
I got less and less to prove
it took me too long to realize
that I don't take good pictures
cause I have the kind of beauty
that moves.

...Ani Difranco

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

...Mark Twain

I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd.
....Death Cab

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

The first time I couchsurfed was before I even knew this site existed. Since then I have hosted several fellow CSers and fell in love with this network of amazing people.

First experience, I was in Geneva, Switzerland and stranded due to a train/scheduling mix up to Barcelona. I walked into a bar thinking about what I was going to do for the evening. This is where I met Sebastian. Sebastian told me a story of his experience in NY when he had no money and no place to stay. A lady let him stay at her place for a week or so, and he thought that he would pay the favor forward. How thoughtful. Not only did he let me sleep in his sons room (who was on holiday) he fed me, showed me around and bought me the essentials to help me get to the next city. It's things like that (and the concept of this website) that rekindle my faith in humanity.

Interests

music, africa, activism, human rights, public health, traveling, laughter, photography, martial arts, global dance, percussion, nature, disaster relief, emergency medicine, volunteering, chaos!, elephants, autumn, getting lost

• arts
• photography
• beauty
• dancing
• human rights
• traveling
• music
• sailing
• martial arts
• medicine
• nursing
• science
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Music. Oh man. Everything. Lets do a top 10 list for today.

Minus the Bear
Blind Pilot
Talking Heads
The Decemberists
The Head and The Heart
Zac Brown Band
Ryan Bingham
Ryan Adams
Wilco
Incubus
The Kooks

Reading...

The Traveler, The Dark River, The Golden City, The Poisonwood Bible, Africa Solo, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, The Alchemist, The Lathe of Heaven, Changing Planes, Post Office, To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Beach The Confederacy of Dunces, On the Road, Dharma Bums....

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The Cinque Terra. Enough said.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, Italy, Kosovo, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States