The first question I vividly remember asking myself was, “Why am I here?” Not in the philosophical sense of purpose, but a literal one — why rural Indiana? Without realizing it, that was the beginning of a lifelong curiosity about place, especially rural ones: their geography and geology, the weather and the weeds, what’s present, what’s missing, and the cultures that grow up around all of it.

Agriculture has been the thread running through most of it. From hand-planting tobacco seedlings in rural Indiana, through 4-H and FFA, to managing a butterfly farm in central Florida’s old cattle country, to nearly a decade mapping invasive species in rural Ohio forests.

But the question that started it all kept pulling. Most recently to a small town on the Cantabrian coast of Galicia, Spain. Eight months of mountains, ocean fog, and parroquia geography I needed to understand.

I hold a BA in History from Indiana University, where one of the most essential questions is “where?” and that question still guides everything I do. My work sits at the intersection of spatial data, writing, and cultural geography. I’m interested in how place shapes identity, how memory lives in landscapes, and what gets passed down, left behind, and carried forward in rural communities.

This site is where those threads come together. Field notes, spatial projects, and writing about the places that don’t make the headlines but quietly hold the world together.