After 35 years as a teacher, librarian, administrator, coach, and professional wearer of many hats (some more stylish than others), I did what every weary educator dreams of during standardized testing week: I retired.

But let’s be clear—retirement for me wasn’t a surrender to rocking chairs and reruns. It was more of a personal commencement ceremony. While my students tossed caps in the air, I tossed my briefcase in the closet and asked myself, “Whatta ya wanna do today?”

My answer: everything.

Armed with six decades of stories, scars, and a slightly overstuffed backpack, I headed to the woods—not in the sit-and-muse-like-Thoreau sense, but the hike-from-Lake-Huron-to-Lake-Michigan kind of way. I wanted to live deliberately, seek the essential, and wring every drop of meaning from this next chapter.

Before all that, I served students across Michigan and China as an English and Spanish teacher, librarian, basketball coach, alternative ed principal, tech trainer, preschool director, and district administrator. I’ve taught in classrooms, coached on courts, and even wrangled an 800-kid preschool program (no small feat, trust me). My formal credentials include a B.A. in English/Spanish, a Master’s in Library and Information Science, and a certificate in Educational Technology—but most of my real education has come from the trail, the classroom, and the occasional parenting misadventure.

Today, I’m a writer, traveler, speaker, and perpetual learner. I write books, build online resources, hike long trails, and help people wrestle meaning out of life’s chaos. Whether I’m creating tools to help hikers prepare for the backcountry, guides to help readers sleep better, or humorous tales from my years in education, my goal is the same: leave the world a little more inspired—and maybe a little better rested—than I found it.

I believe the best chapters are still ahead. Let’s walk there together.