I was born in California and raised by a single mom in Oregon.
As a youth I was an avid soccer player, runner, bicycle tourist, musician, creator, and adventurer. If I wasn’t on the soccer field (my first true home), I was either getting lost somewhere on my bike (my territory was unnervingly large for a grade schooler), playing my trumpet in the basement, making something somewhere in the neighborhood (forts, treehouses, battlefields on vacant lots), building model airplanes (lots of them), or fabricating a practical assortment of camping accoutrements with my mom’s sewing machine and whatever I could find in the garage (to be deployed in backyards and mountain campgrounds).
Somewhere in my youth I became a thinker; most likely from watching the TV series Kung Fu starring David Carradine. Star Trek was also a significant influence.
High school was more of the same, just expanded a bit. Soccer competition took me to the highest levels in Oregon, Washington, and western Canada. My bicycle territory covered much of Oregon (especially its famed coastline), Washington, and The San Juan Islands. Music took me into a highly competitive marching band that traveled the country. And school started to become a priority, finally (the thinker was emerging).
In college I was a scholarship student and athlete. I studied education, religion, and philosophy (my second true home). I dabbled in psychology and literature. Soccer was an absolute blast. I played with and against USMNT players, with and against Foreign Internationals, and traveled all over the west. Fun! Carpentry became a formal skill as I built dorm room lofts and bookcases.
In graduate school I studied philosophy, theology, and the history of Christian spirituality. I continued dabbling in psychology and literature. I played soccer in a few men’s leagues, learned to rock climb, and did a lateral shift from bicycle touring to mountain biking.
I have a broad background of occupational experiences as an educator, a creative, and a builder. Some of the more meaningful work I have done includes pastoral work to college aged people; nationwide event planning; portrait, wedding, sports, concert, landscape, and documentary photography; philosophy education at the undergraduate and graduate level; and a variety of trade experiences in the construction industry.
First and foremost, I see myself as a thinker. It’s my passion. It’s who I am. Sometimes I wish I could just stop it and do something else. But I can’t. As a thinker, I care deeply about what is real. I also care about human wellness and maturity. The clarity and accuracy with which we understand each, beginning with understanding what is real about ourselves (our nature and purpose), is integral to living well in a responsible, sustainable, and flourishing way. I also see myself as a creative…of sorts. I build stuff. I read and write. I take pictures. I seek out art and music. I marvel at comedy. I immerse in nature. I am meaning driven. I intentionally lead an aesthetic life.
My paths as a creative and a thinker significantly inform and reinforce each other. Both impact my occupation as a builder that specializes in custom work.