"I've been moving around a lot over the last few years for one reason or another. Mostly I'm just too restless to sit in one place for too long, even if I'm bonded to that place with friends, school, whatever. I'm insanely curious, so I'm just always taking off. I've been back and forth across the States a few times now, mostly on trains heading for San Francisco or Portland, the west coast meccas. Spent a lot of time in Chicago because it's only a good busride away, always a good escape spot when you're bored on Friday afternoon with an open weekend. New York and Boston have been good to me as well. I also spent some summers on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan, a strange, beautiful place that I've developed a weird love-hate relationship with, but no doubt a gorgeous, quiet place to spend a few months saving money and staring at Lake Huron.
"In the summer of 2008 I was lucky enough to spend a month backpacking through Europe with a good friend of mine. We did 12 cities, 9 countries in 30 days. That was an incredible month for sure. On top of all that, I just spent this last summer in the high desert of central Oregon, in a town called Bend on the Deschutes River, where my parents recently moved. The same friend I went to Europe with, my friend Aby, we drove across the country together on US 40 coast to coast over a week from Wilmington, NC to San Francisco. That was rad. It was a good chance to step out of the Midwest for an extended period of time and live in a totally different landscape, drastically different environment, more open culture. Spending time in the wilderness of Oregon, the home of mountains and rivers without end, is nothing short of a religious experience.
"Not all of my exoduses from Ohio have been skateboard oriented, a lot was for school and just sheer restlessness, but my board has always been with me on my wanderings, really whether I wanted to take it or not. Leaving it would have been like leaving my toothbrush and all my underwear, and part of my soul, so yea, I skated everywhere I went. Even when I was in places where skating was physically difficult, like small cobblestoned country towns in Europe, having my board with me meant all of me was there, that I was ready for whatever was coming. Not only was it practical way to get around in foreign cities, but it meant when I came up on famous spots in places like SF or Paris, I didn't have to shoot myself in the foot for being a lazy ass and leaving it behind. Now I'm settled back in Akron for my master degree, not as much time to zip around everywhere, but I'm sure some crazy travel plans will develop soon. But for now being back in the forests and rust of the Midwest is where I need to be. There's a lot to be done right here.
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