Biography

I’m a native Chicagoan with a love for travel, nature, cities, and adventure. I started by 50 state journey when I was young, but never really had the change to explore more than a handful of local states until I went to college out in Pennsylvania. The friends I met would invite me to stay with them over breaks, and I went all over the Eastern seaboard with them. I lived and traveled abroad during that time, and had many more adventures out there. I moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and continued traveling around, especially to the west and south. A few years later COVID happened. With everything shut down, local travel to smaller states was the only real option, and I gained a new appreciation for “flyover states.” When I moved back in Fall 2021, I realized I had 33 states knocked out. At that point, I was determined to cover the rest before I turned 30 in December 2022, and I met that goal. I didn’t do any cross-country travel in a van or take significant time off, I was either a full-time student or a full-time engineer during the whole thing. I’m proud I made it all happen, and I’d do it all again if I could. And now, I get to do a few victory laps and hit the places I missed.