About Me: A Story of Philosophy

“The examined life is painful.”

Growing up, I was always drawn to story: stories read and stories heard.

When I was in middle school, I had the idea that I would journal about my day or a piece of my life and connect it to larger topic that an imaginary reader might be interested in hearing. Brian Dillon would say I was developing some sense of the idea of “essayism.”

Truthfully:

I just wanted to tell a good story.

It was just journalling until one day towards the end of 7th grade, I wrote a poem (I still have and remember) about being inside my mind. It became a sort of allegory for me that would shape the way I thought and would eventually write for the rest of my life.

This “life of the mind,” Dr. Cornell West would say, that I found early would contrast an athletic “life of the body” that I chose through various sports for most of my childhood and young adult life.

My parents encouraged expression of the body and mind.

Both of my parents pursued higher education and college athletics. They are deeply religious, and the spiritual life has molded me as well. They encouraged academic pursuits, and I found an early interest in word study, syntax, and just overall expression through language.