When I first started The Open Road Before Me, it was early 2011 and I’d just decided to quit my job of three years to take up teaching English in South Korea. I was burnt out and desperate for change, and addressed the problem by veering down a vastly different road from what I’d been …
The World
Atop the Walls of Jaisalmer
I write this from the shores of Lake Te Anau, on the saturated fringes of Fiordland National Park. Here in the midst of lush forests and craggy fiords, I find myself missing the desert. Dunes, the endless expanse of featureless scrub-lands, baggage trains of camels… and I miss that crumbling fort at the edge of the …
Christmas Letter 2015
The past 12 months have been strange ones for me, and for a number of reasons. It’s the first year in the past four where I’ve spent more time in my home country than overseas. It’s the first time since university where I’ve found myself living abroad in a country outside of Asia. And it’s …
Top 10 Memories: Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend
I treat the camera like a person – I gaze into it. Photos are a flat thing, and you need to put life into them.” – Cara Delevingne Sometimes travel is dangerous. I know it as well as anyone. From being jumped on a cobblestone street in France to battling altitude sickness while crossing a pass …
Christmas Letter 2013
Dear Family and Friends, Wow. This is the third Christmas letter I’ve written from this side of the Pacific. The first, I was not even three months into my first teaching contract in South Korea; the second, I was soaking in the sun on an island beach in Thailand. Now, I’m back in Korea more …
…And So It Ends…
Traveling the world for 19 months and living out of a backpack for seven of those has, unsurprisingly, changed me as a person. I knew it would. It’s one of those things you go into with an expectation to be changed. I was just surprised by how I was affected. One of the big reasons people leave …
Christmas Letter 2012
Dear Friends and Family,Wow, I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I left home… and what a year it’s been! I spent most of the year finishing up my teaching contract in South Korea and the remaining time backpacking around Southeast Asia. Over the course of 12 fun-filled months, I’ve made some truly …
Cycles – A Love Letter to the Sea
This is a little something I’ve been working on for the past week or so. Growing up on a lake in the Pacific Northwest has instilled in me a love for all things water. I love swimming, floating, riding, and frolicking in water – whether it be fresh or salt. I particularly love the sea. …
Christmas Letter
Dear Friends, Family, and Everyone Else What a year, eh? This year has been one of amazing opportunities, changes, and dreams come true for me. I spent most of the year living in Oak Harbor, a small town on in island in Washington State. Most of my life centered around my job working in a …
The Death of a Dictator
Kim Jong Il is dead. Certainly an interesting headline to wake up to. Especially considering I live several hours away from the border of two countries that are still technically at war. The death of such a man is definitely a good thing, and the world is a better place without him in it. I …