I’d much rather ask about your story, but OK…here’s mine.

It’s weird seeing my name in big type in the top left of this website. I believe the people in stories always deserve much more space on the page than the writer. But, five, six, seven years down the line, I’ll be glad I put this together: right now, it’s a convenient place to keep all the writing I’m lucky enough to have published these past three years; in the future, it’ll be a perfect time capsule I can dig up and fondly reminisce over. 

For me, writing came from a love of reading. When my mom first sat me down in our living room in front of some picture books, I was not amused. A particularly fidgety and impatient toddler, I made it plainly clear to her that books weren’t worth my precious toddler time. But, to my surprise, I found a strange satisfaction in stuttering over words like “cat” and “train” in the next hour. 

In middle school, an English teacher of mine, Mr. Jennings, assigned a year-long freeform journaling assignment. At the time, I didn’t understand it; only in retrospect do I realize Mr. Jennings was making the exercise of writing a normal part of my day. So, by the time I arrived at St. Mark’s School of Texas for high school, I was ready to keep writing — and, among the many extracurricular choices, journalism seemed like the obvious one to meet that goal. Shortly after starting, I met The ReMarker’s legendary advisor Mr. Ray Westbrook and quickly found that the “publications suite” was my home away from home. 

In the coming years in that suite, I learned that journalism combines my love of reading and writing and curiosity about other people in a way that nothing else really can. For one, it’s a great excuse to get interesting people to sit down and talk to me. Second, it’s a way for me to digest information and pursue a deep, meaningful interpretation of critical topics. Third…well, it’s really fun. 

To that end, I’m very grateful to Mr. Westbrook and the St. Mark’s administration for their constant support — without it, putting out a newspaper every month would be a lot tougher. I’m also really appreciative of the guys who work with me: journalism done right is collaborative, and I’m lucky to collaborate with the students who ended up in the publications suite with me. And, of course, I’ll also forever be indebted to my parents and my brother for their encouragement.