Why I Write

Writing has always been how I make meaning of my inner world. Today, that writing is deeply shaped by my path toward becoming a mental health counselor and my lived experience navigating anxiety, identity, healing, and self-understanding. I write about the quiet, often unseen struggles of being human. The ones that don’t always have neat resolutions, but instead ask for compassion and curiosity. Old Soul Searching is a space for reflection rather than answers, for naming what’s tender and still unfolding. My work lives at the intersection of mental health, self-inquiry, and emotional truth, and is rooted in the belief that awareness is the first step toward real change.

How Travel Shaped Me

Travel has been one of my greatest teachers. Living in unfamiliar places — moving through foreign cities where I was anonymous, learning to listen in other languages, and adapting to cultures that weren’t my own — taught me how much we share beneath our differences. Across nearly fifty countries, and through living in New Zealand and teaching English in Spain, I was repeatedly reminded of the same truth: we are all searching for connection, meaning, and a sense of belonging. Travel humbled me and expanded my understanding of what it means to be human. It’s also where my writing deepened. Where I learned to write in a way that invites others to recognize themselves in my words and feel less alone.

Life at Sea

For several years, I lived and worked at sea, serving aboard vessels ranging from classic sailboats to mega yachts. Life on the water was both expansive and isolating, marked by long horizons, close quarters, and overwhelming beauty. There is a particular rhythm to it that can be grounding one moment and disorienting the next, and it was within that tension that much of my memoir, Lost on Purpose, took shape. That experience — the freedom, the confinement, the reckonings — deeply informed my writing and sense of self. Lost on Purpose is slated for release in November 2027 with Vine Leaves Press.