Welcome to my personal journal. Aside from sharing adventures of my year-long sabbatical, I want to expand my creative side by writing about my bizarre dreams, about victims of my acute perception and about general observations of this crazy world.

Background

I was born in Montreal, Canada, on July 1st 1974, to my nearly Polish mom and “I don’t really know how to explain him in one sentence” European dad. I cannot recall how warm or sunny the day was, but I bet it got a whole lot sweeter around 9:45am.

Much of my childhood was spent laughing and playing with my younger brother, Mike. Using vast armies of G.I. Joe, Star wars, He-man and Lego, we spent hours in the basement envisioning empires of carnage and adventure. I was responsible for creating worlds, and Mike for not eating the little pieces.

When my dad brought home one of the first personal computers, I quickly got sucked into the digital world. Such much so, that my brother and I had to sign a contract to avoid conflicts using the computer simultaneously. Despite this passion, I maintained a balanced lifestyle; skiing downhill, playing soccer, attending scouts, riding my bike (now motorcycle), and playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends were all part of my regular teenage schedule.

Career wise, my path was clear; I applied for only one program in CEGEP (Pure & Applied Sciences), and only one in university (Computer Engineering). After graduating in 1997, I worked locally in Montreal for a few years before moving to Boston and then to San Francisco. I returned home in 2003, missing my friends and family too much to stay away any longer. Shortly thereafter, I started my own company as a Software Architect.

If I didn’t enjoy computers so much, my career would have involved psychology.  I’m simply fascinated by how we think, what motivates us, and how many biases we have. The human mind and the ability to (sometimes) reason are topics I spend a great deal reading about, and that includes thought processing, negotiation and magic.

In mid-2015, I drew inspiration from my family’s deep desire for exploration and after a key conversation with a friend, decided to travel the world for a year.  Until then, I had been to 34 countries but wanted to experience much, much more. After all, my grandparents visited 160 countries in their lifetime, so there’s some catching up to do!

Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading my stories, and hopefully it’ll inspire you to seek what makes you happy.