A brief introduction

            I would like this first post to just be a little bit about myself and my intent. First off, I was born in Holland, Netherlands — a military brat my mom says — and left for Oklahoma at the age of 3. We lived there until I was about 9, and then I spent the majority of my time in rural Ohio until I was 26. We were relatively lower-middle-class. My dad was in the Army, and my mom during the years they were together mostly just took care of me and my older sister. They split when I was 10 and my mom began working for different foodservice companies to support the three of us the former train-town of Bellefontaine. When I think of the city I picture the first brick road in the country which also happens to be right in front of the courthouse with the just as memorable, and strange, water fountain with its pineapple topper. Besides that, the city was a hub for workers for neighboring manufacturing plants with no much else around it but corn.

                Growing up I had terrible asthma and allergies and I was simply a chore to raise. I had a lot of mood swings and the medication I was often given for my asthma didn’t help with that. I was that awkward kid that kept to himself, played video games, wrote fiction in class, and didn’t communicate much outside of school. Don’t get me wrong, I had a small friend group for a while there, but as things tend to happen, you get older and some people drift apart from one another. Being a closeted gay boy who couldn’t fake having the same interests as my peers didn’t help either.

                I pushed through school, attended community college and later a private university where where I pursued a liberal arts degree in Geology. Weird, I know. I had an interest in the field and it seemed like it would offer more opportunities than writing would. That at least wasn’t wrong. In retrospect, I either should have stuck with creative writing, stayed in academia pursuing a particular interest (philosophy or sociology at the time), or gone to trade school.

                It took me more than 2 years to find anything productive with my geology degree, but having it allowed me to work in Alaska on three separate occasions. The first occasion was at a period of my life where I severely depressed and I was eager to leave the state. I flew in a plane for the first time since I was a toddler from Ohio to Seattle and then to Juneau. There I rode a ferry to my first mining camp, where I saw my first Alaskan bald eagle at the pier. Unfortunately, the ride was at 3 am and in the exhaustion of travel I completely missed the whale sightings.

            My next two trips to Alaska couldn’t have been more different. I spent the first project cutting drill-core at an active mine for sampling in their lab. During my second and third I worked in different remote Alaskan projects, lived in a tent, and logged drill-core for mineral exploration. Meaning, I got to use my geology education from school.

                After that first project in Alaska, I moved to Colorado, met an awesome guy and I have been here for the last 3 years. My most recent foray into the Alaskan wilds reminded me more of the interests I have had growing up that I have always avoided pursuing out of a fear of failure, namely writing.

            I expect my efforts will be lackluster in the beginning and I will get things wrong too, but I have come to realize that we don’t get back wasted hours. We should pursue what it is that will give our lives meaning, not just momentary happiness. If perhaps that means in the short term I must sacrifice some fun in that pursuit, then I honestly believe it will be worth it in the end. The successes of the most famous and accomplished individuals did not come about because they pursued one thing their entire lives or because they didn’t take any risks. No, their successes came by being bold and persistent and failing time and again.

            What I would like to do here is to have a place to put my words and ideas out into the world without the filter and bubble of social media. On Facebook or Twitter one is often talking to the wind, especially if they are longwinded. It is not a place for long-form thinking and discourse of serious political and philosophical topics. Those places train us to be reactionary and to simply move on to the next thing that piques our interest 2-seconds later. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that some people who never had problems focusing on something before the advent of social media now have some form of ADD.

             I appreciate any feedback and if there happens to be a subject anyone may be interested in hearing my perspective on, I will certainly consider it, though I will do my best not to have any strong opinions on things I know little about.