So you might ask me where I am from. I think it’s funny when people ask me where I grew up. The simple answer would be Saint Clair, Michigan, but no one ever knows where that is. So, like a good little Michigander, I show the inquirer the top of my left hand in the “mitt” position, pointing to the spot where my thumb meets my palm. “I’m from here” I say.

You might ask what college I went to. It’s even funnier when people ask me where I went to school. I get one of three responses. Either a.) “Kalamazoo College, ah yes, that is a good school” accompanied by a nod of approval, or b.) “Kalamazoo College? Don’t you mean Western Michigan University?” No. I mean Kalamazoo College. That’s why I said, “Kalamazoo College”. Or c.) a severely confused “Kalamazoo?” This is my cue to, again, show them my “mitt”, this time pointing to the bottom left corner of my hand. “Here,” I say, “I went to school here.”

Then you might ask me what I do. I hate saying, “I’m a writer” even though, I guess, that’s what I am. It’s hard to say that these days without sounding pretentious or broke. Most of the time people look at me and ask again “Ok, yah, but what do you do?” Then I explain that I am a high school English teacher, primarily to students with disabilities. I struggle to say that I am writer first, and then a teacher, especially when I know being a good teacher requires you to be a teacher first. Still wobbling across that tightrope, probably will be for quite some time.

Here are some other things that I “do”. I run. I ran for the Saints in high school, the Hornets in college, and now, I run for me. My body likes 5k races but my heart loves the half marathon. I hope to meet Pre in the afterlife. Upon college graduation I picked up yoga. The last few years of my life have been nothing but yin and yoga gives me my yang. It gives me an excuse to slow down but still makes me feel productive. My favorite positions are tree pose and star-gazer. Once people start tipping me more I would like take a Yoga Teacher Training course in India.

I read. Big surprise there, I am sure. But this is a pretty big one for me. When I was little I used to climb into the crab apple tree in our front yard and read Sweet Valley Twins or anything by Roald Dahl. In high school I discovered Sylvia Plath, who continues to teach me what writing can really do. In college reading for pleasure was virtually impossible so I met Toni Morisson, Virginia Woolf and Nathaniel Hawthorne, but I wouldn’t really call them friends, more like acquaintances. Though I do still kick it with Walt Whitman and Thoreau from time to time. I am still having a hard time figuring out if I continue to read what I have in front of me because I truly enjoy what I am reading or because I am trained to do so. Hopefully college hasn’t ruined me.

I am also slightly obsessed with Allen Ginsberg.

Then you might wonder, where have I been? My junior year of college I spent six months studying environmental/political issues in Thailand. In a sentence, it changed me. Click here to read how. The summer after college graduation I spent six weeks in Prague for a writers workshop followed by two weeks travel throughout Eastern Europe. That changed me too, but you will have to click here for that.

So you ask, where am I now? Today, I live in Chicago. Next year could be different, next year could be the same. I’ve got some roots to plant, but I am in no hurry to start digging. I just want to be where I am while I am there, and do that in as many places as possible, hopefully in more places that don’t require a body part to explain where it is located.