Welcome
Here I document my adventures in travel, lifestyle, and thinking differently with the hope of broadening people’s perspectives. I hope you enjoy!
Here I document my adventures in travel, lifestyle, and thinking differently with the hope of broadening people’s perspectives. I hope you enjoy!
I like eating a plant-based diet, running long distances, learning new things, intentionally designing my lifestyle, sharing good tea with friends, and creating habits which improve the quality of my work. I also enjoy practicing mindfulness meditation. Below are some of the things I'm best known for.
Digital Nomad
Last summer I worked remotely, for a startup based in Boston, while living in Germany. This job allowed me to travel around Europe and work from places such as Belgrade in Serbia and the Icelandic countryside. For my entire two and a half month stay in Europe, I took nothing more than my 21L Minaal daily bag, and was properly outfitted for everything from press conferences in the Hamburg state parliament to hiking on an Icelandic glacier. I stayed on with the startup after my former position concluded, and now work for them while at college in Chicago.
Smart Dorm
During my first year of college I set up my dorm room lights to be voice controlled and remotely controllable. By the end of the year I would wake up to my alarm which automatically turned on the Kasa lights in my room. Using IFTTT integration I linked my lights to my phone to turn off when I left and on when I got back home. Using an echo dot I could control everything with my voice and even change the light's color. Next year I will be switching to Hue bulbs, which can sync to music or strobe, and trying to integrate a Nest thermostat.
Studying Abroad
As a junior in high school I studied abroad in Hamburg, Germany, living with a host family and taking the entirety of my classes in German. In addition to making a second family and becoming fluent in German (level C1 Goethe Certificate; a brief explanation of what C1 means can be found here). Highlights of the year included:
writing a peace charter with 250 other exchange students from over thirty countries to give to the European Parliament
spending a week sailing on the Baltic Sea
watching my friend from back home compete in the FIRS Inline Hockey World Championships for Team USA
living in a castle turned youth hostel on a school band trip
being mentored by German senator Dr. Bartke of the SPD
taking a ballroom dance class with my host sister and mutual friend
Other study abroad experiences include working as a paleoanthropological intern in South Africa on Lee Berger's team, performing anthropological research as a third-place winner of AFS Project Change, and spending three weeks in Bavaria, a year prior to Hamburg, experiencing German culture for the first time.
Ultramarathoning
After tenth grade my running buddy and I successfully completed the Rachel Carson Trail Challenge, a 36 mile trail race through the hills of Western Pennsylvania in 10:06:09 earning 43rd place and first and second in our age group. In the fall of 2018, I ran the Chicago Marathon with a time of 3:47:11, placing 18th in my age group. Other running goals include completing the Leadville 100 in Colorado and the Spartathlon in Greece.
Some of my favorite posts
