There are countless ways to tell one’s story. What I share here is specifically the backstory for this website – how it came into existence and why I am devoted to this kind of work. I’m going to organize this story using the three domains that have defined me for as long as I can remember: spirituality, writing/literature, and education. I’ll introduce these somewhat chronologically, although these domains are always intersecting for me, spiraling back upon one another and never entirely distinct. I will also keep this story brief because we’re just getting acquainted. I might share more as we get to know each other better!

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Spirituality

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I was raised in a religious home, heavily influenced by my mother. My mother’s religion was a blend of the conservative Baptist teaching she imbibed at church and the more mystical reading she did on her own. Above all, my mother was a student of the Bible. She devoted herself to memorizing, studying, and teaching it. I struggled for years to follow in my mother’s footsteps, but her particular religion never quite fit my frame. When I finally left “the church,” I spent several years unlearning what I had been taught was the “only truth.”  This ultimately led to my seeking a Master of Divinity at Boston University’s School of Theology, with a certificate in Spirituality Studies. I devoted my time there to formulating a completely non-religious approach to cultivating one’s individual spirituality. The fruit of that study is one aspect of what I offer here.

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Writing/Literature

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Two childhood events mark the beginning of my relationship with writing and literature. The first occurred on my tenth birthday when my aunt bought me my very first journal. The second was at the age of fourteen, when my father bought me my first Dickens novel. My aunt’s gift motivated me to begin my journaling practice, which included a combination of extremely sentimental poetry and melodramatic introspective ramblings. But over the years, the practice of consistent journaling turned me into a self-reflective thinker with an intuitive understanding of how we shape our identities through telling our stories to ourselves and to others. Eventually, this would lead me to pursue an MFA in Creative Nonfiction writing, where I would focus exclusively on memoir and life-writing. The belief that life-writing is a powerful tool for personal formation and meaning making is another aspect of what I offer here.

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Education

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The earliest flickers of my desire to become an educator occurred in elementary school, where my teachers would frequently pair me up with struggling classmates as a peer tutor. The desire to teach English was solidified when I read David Copperfield at the age of fourteen. The very idea that anyone might go through their life without reading Dickens was unbearable to me! But the real drive behind devoting my life to education stems from a teacher I had in high school, who inspired me less by the subject he taught than by the life he lived. This teacher read 1,000 pages a week and knew something about everything. His commitment to continual learning and self-cultivation was a stark contrast to so many adults I had observed, who seemed to have ossified in their viewpoints and stopped developing as human beings long ago. My commitment to education is above all a commitment to modeling a lifestyle of self-cultivation and openness to growth and change. A mantra I share with my students is this: "You are the protagonist of your own life story. Your one job is to learn, grow, and change.”

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The Intersection

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 Everything I have to offer stems not just from one of these circles, but from the place where these three domains flow in and through each other. You may have noticed the artwork on this website consists of various abstract renderings of a spiral. To me, the spiral represents the threefold gaze, turning inward, then outward, then upward. But it also represents the thread that runs through everything, stitching together these three things that have been so formative and significant to me: cultivating interiority through spiritual practice, solidifying my sense of self through narrative life writing, and imparting not just my learning but my life through teaching.