About Me

First: Drew Bledsoe.

Kidding. Sports Illustrated for Kids. 

When I was a kid, this was my lifeblood. I looked forward to every issue, always reading the Buzz Beamer comic in the back first.

This gives a sense though of who I was, a sport-obsessed kid who loved to read. I also voraciously consumed Matt Christopher books, major bonus points if you know him. 

I still love Sports Illustrated for Kids to this day though, mainly for that 90s-era style of uninhibited expression. I mean, look at that cover. They replaced Drew Bledsoe’s arm with a literal cannon.

After college, I moved to Thailand.

It was the smartest thing I’ve ever done and the thing that changed my entire life trajectory. 

One night in my early 20s, I was visiting my aunt in Manhattan. I had no plan for after college and this stressed me out deeply. We were drunk, and I said after graduating, I just want to pour drinks for New Zealanders. I said this to be provocative, and she called my bluff. Why not? She said. We ended the night with a plan to go to Vietnam, and after one informational phone call, I was on a plane to Thailand.

My first night, I was terrified to leave my room. I stayed in my guesthouse over 24 hours. Then, when I was starving, I left to get food. By that afternoon, from the simple act of feeding myself, I felt like I was the king of the world. 

This sparked a love of travel and exploration that has continued to this day. 

Two days after that, I learned how to ride a moped, and this became my favorite thing to do: riding mopeds to different Thai villages. Some of these were the happiest days of my life.

Dan Buettner. 

I got back to the US and had to start a career, all that. I was pretty aimless for a bit, working in a restaurant or doing shitty entry-level jobs. I was on the phone with a mentor when she pushed me. “What do you want to do?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I said frantically.

She remained firm. “Yes, you do.”

Upon this, I calmly said, “I want to travel the world and meet interesting people.”

“That’s a thing,” she said. 

She introduced me to Dan Buettner, discoverer of the Blue Zones. It was like a Rosetta Stone. It’s possible, I said. 

Not long after, I was at this Creative Mornings event in Portland. Before the talk starts, you have the chance to hobnob and talk to people. I was talking to this guy, he learned I was just starting in my career, and he was like, what do you want to do for work? I said, sheepishly, I just want to have interesting conversations. 

“That’s a thing,” he said. 

I never met that dude again, I don’t know his name or what he did or where he is now, but that simple affirmation changed my life forever. 

And lastly, a picture of me.