My story

Just a man on a journey. That’s how I’ve come to see myself lately. I don’t know exactly where I’m going or what I’m going to find when I get there. But my focus is on enjoying the ride. Like Emerson said, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” The destination is often some abstract place that we may never reach. And if we are lucky enough to reach it, we often find that we are no happier upon arrival. We stay for only a moment and then begin working toward our next destination. But the lessons we learn, the experiences we have, the people we meet along the way, that’s what we remember. Those are the things that form our character, mold our beliefs, and instill our values.

So, I’m not concerned with reaching some arbitrary point where I believe happiness to be. I want to find happiness and carry it with me. I want to learn and struggle. I want to experience everything that’s available to me, to find balance in the extremes. Thoreau says it best, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” (Joke’s on you. You thought this was a personal blog, not a terrible reminder of how you failed the Transcendentalism unit in your high school literature course.) I want to spread myself thin, gain a breadth of experience, and dip my toes in as many pools as possible. I refuse to come to the end of my life and regret the paths I did not explore.

I make my living as a Civil Engineer. I graduated with emphases in structural and geotechnical engineering but work primarily in the transportation sector providing construction oversight and assisting in design for roadway and bridge projects. I enjoy my job, but it doesn’t quite satisfy my hunger.

Ultra-running is my passion. It’s helped me to become a better person and learn about myself. I feel better after a run and find that I’m more patient with others. It gives me time to work out my problems, assess my actions, and plan my future endeavors. And it also provides me with some very necessary struggle and resistance. If you can learn to smile after 9 straight hours of running, you can learn to persist through most things.

I’m also an avid reader, a terrible guitarist, a wannabe whiskey aficionado, a solo traveler, a student of transcendentalism, a mental health advocate, a beginner archer/hunter, an ordained minister, and certified in First Aid/CPR/AED. And I’m always looking to add to that list.

Contained in this site are the experiences I’ve had and lessons I’ve learned.