Eventually, my family moved to the Florida Panhandle. I played a lot of sports growing up. Mostly football and basketball due to my size and distaste for unnecessary running. I spent as much time as I could outside. When I was sixteen, my father gave me a small Gheenoe and the world opened up. I could chase ducks, explore rivers, and fish whatever water I wanted. I already had curiosity, but having the chance to figure things out for myself built confidence. 
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While I was in high school, I became connected to a local church that had just started. They called it a "church plant." I had been so greatly impacted that I decided to pursue working there while I was in college. I went on to work in ministry for a little more than a decade. That season taught me a lot. I learned how to listen, ask better questions, communicate clearly and build community among people whose lives often looked very different from my own. 

Although there were some painful lessons I had to learn in that season due to my own unresolved issues, I gained a lot from my time with them.
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I didn’t know it then, but those lessons would eventually follow me onto boats, behind microphones and around tables all over the world.
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I studied creative writing in college, although it has taken me a while to find my way back to it. Now, writing is becoming a much larger part of my life and work—and I love it.
 
Writing forces me to slow down and make sense of what I am experiencing. It asks me to pay attention. At its best, it can take something deeply personal and make it meaningful to someone else.

I’m not entirely sure why that spark has reignited now, in a moment so dominated by video reels and an endless stream of people doing roughly the same thing. Maybe that is precisely why. I’ve grown tired of watching everything disappear beneath the next swipe.

I still believe writing has the power to make us stop for a minute. It can cause us to reflect, and help reshape the way we see the world around us.