I was lucky to grow up on a small farm in Southeastern Ohio. It was a kind of idyllic childhood surrounded by fields and forests. When I graduated high school, I was looking for adventure, so I booked a one-way ticket to Anchorage, Alaska with vague ideas of making a fortune in the frontier. I discovered that the few thousand bucks I had saved from growing and selling melons wasn’t going to go far in the real world, and I started roughing it and hitch-hiking. A few months later I had made it as far as Mexico City when my money ran out and I headed home.

The seed that the trip had planted grew into years of adventures throughout the world, including working as a mountain guide in Peru and teaching English throughout East Asia and Latin America. In my mid-twenties, I met my wife Lancy and we moved back to Ohio. While looking for jobs I stumbled on an advertisement saying, “Tower Climbers Wanted.” I applied, and a few months later I got a call and a job offer. On the first day we climbed 400 feet in the air to change some bolts on an old tower, and I was hooked.

I spent the next 5 years travelling around the United States while building, repairing, and decommissioning cell towers and cell equipment. Eventually, the constant wear and tear on my body took its toll and I had to find something else to do for a living. Through a roundabout journey this led me to the insurance industry!

I’m blessed with a beautiful wife and handsome young son. We hope to have another child in the next couple of years. The rest of my family still lives back East. We moved to Colorado to find something new in 2016 and now consider this to be our home. I don’t think there’s anywhere better to live or visit in the United States than sunny Colorado. Bonus tip: if you haven’t seen them yet, you should try to visit the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado. It feels like visiting some remote corner of the world, but it’s right here within 4 hours of Denver.

Many things about the world have changed in the past couple of years, but I think its important to remain optimistic. We’re experiencing a time of great innovation and challenges as a species, and I think that’s led to a lot of anxiety in society. We need to help each other and try to be understanding of one another. We need to investigate our history and understand the greatness of our ancestors to see the power we have within ourselves.