Have I got a Story for you

How it Began

My first twenty-three years were spent braving the intolerable, freezing, maelstrom known as Winter in New England. But one summer day in 2003, I opened a dusty, old shoebox that was buried in the back of my closet, and found the very first cassette tape my mom allowed me to buy with my own money: Beach Boys “California (And Other) Girls”. My mom would have rather had me spend the money on something more “educational,” but it was my allowance money, after all. I was eight.

By the time I was 12, I was crushing power chords on my cherry red Rok Axe guitar in the basement, and by 14, I formed my first rock band as a freshman in high school. In college, I was writing more complex pieces on my acoustic and penning lyrics in journals beside the prose and poetry I wrote (and still do) nightly. The post-college days had me writing and performing throughout New England with my first adult band. But on the precipice of my twenty-fourth icy winter, when I fatefully found that Beach Boys tape that seemed to emanate sunshine from the shoebox, I decided to pack up my guitars, tighten my belt, and drive across eleven states to sunny California. I was 23.

Finding My Way

Since then, I have poured my musical creativity into a handful of projects which are detailed in the musician section of this site. Highlighted by performances across the US and Europe with my band Beware of Safety, I have achieved personal goals and successes over which my 12-year-old self would totally freak out.

In 2010, my brother and sister-in-law gave me a 120mm film camera for Christmas which inspired me to shoot photographs, and eventually I purchased a Canon DSLR to expand my visual range. I have been popping off shots ever since and my desire to experiment in visual art has turned into a pursuit of photographic documentation of my travels around the world as well as the world just beyond my doorstep. I also cultivated my appreciation for and dedication to the English language and began sharing my work (personal essays, prose, and the like) publicly in 2011. Select pieces have been published on Thought Catalog, and I won a competition at MusicJobs.com with a piece I wrote about, you guessed it, music. 

A Bump in the Road

On September 11, 2012, while penning the best man’s speech to end all best man speeches for my dearest friend’s approaching nuptials, I was struck by the first of two strokes which would stricken me to the ICU for eight days and leave me with a permanent, but highly manageable blind spot despite the potential for more life-threatening issues. Three weeks later, I delivered the aforementioned epic speech to an enraptured audience of the couple’s families, and all of our friends. I’ve written essays about my strokes here, here, and here.

In January 2016, after a whole bunch of world travel and forging bonds with strangers who've become friends (there's that lovely word again), I decided to quit my job, sell and donate my things, and give myself over to the affable embrace of the world by traveling the earth for a handful of months. I was moving towards something greater than myself to uncover something great within myself. I never knew what would come next, but I knew that my trust in the inhabitants of this planet, and in my own self, would allow me to plant the seeds for the future phases of my life to become a greater contributor to humanity's progress.

Connecting with Humans

You may have noticed a link up there in the header that hasn't yet been explained in this gigantic about me section. That is a still portrait/podcast project that I host called Five Questions. I started this project to explore the oneness of humanity by asking what I think are life's bigger questions that focus on the way a person thinks, the way they feel, and their core values. Five Questions is one of those seeds that continues to blossom. 

Full Circle, Designing life

In late-2017, my journey brought me back to Massachusetts where this whole life thing originally started. Now armed with decades worth of diverse skills and experiences, I launched myself into a career in design. Specifically user experience design. A field in which the main focus is empathy for the customer, the client, the human being interacting with businesses, organizations, products, and systems in this world. I finally see my seemingly disparate yet extensive skillsets gelling into a career that provides value to me and the projects on which I work. I am currently leading a team of UX designers and researchers and innovating the $800 billion global aviation space. This is certainly the path that is leading me to become that greater contributor I mentioned above.

I spend the majority of my free time around my home outside of Bangkok, Thailand taking inspiration from my wife, friends, music, and film, all while taking zillions of pictures of my lovely kitties Major Garland Briggs and Naido Potato.

It’s been a long journey, with many more opportunities and challenges ahead of me. But I’ve begun wiping away the haze on the mirror of my life, and I’m seeing myself and my value with great clarity.

More About Me

Music I Dig

Where I’ve Traveled

I've been super fortunate to have traveled to many countries in this beautiful world.

In alphabetical order: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, USA, Vatican City.