FYI this bio is a personal essay

I’m from Kaysville, Utah. I wasn’t born there—we moved around for a while—but that’s where my parents built our home. West of the freeway, on the edge of a young neighborhood that gave way to undeveloped fields.

The move into that house marks my earliest solid, distinct memories—I remember what it was like to sleep in my still-bare new room upstairs that I shared with my brother. I remember renting ClayFighter 63 ⅓ from Blockbuster and playing it on our N64 in a framed-and-carpeted-and-that’s-it living room, TV on the floor.

Within a year or so of moving in, two big things happened: (1) I switched schools to go to the “Spectrum” program (it meant something different back then), which promised I wouldn’t be so bored all the time, and (2) I started piano lessons. These two endeavors kicked off a metamorphosis into two identities which remain central to me: School Nerd and Music Nerd. As I write this, it occurs to me that this is still basically my whole thing. (Don’t blame my parents: they also put me in football that year. It didn’t take.)

I was very ambitious, and looking back, eager for recognition. I became obsessed with classical music. I spent my free time practicing piano or composing, I spent my allowance on sheet music or CDs. I also read anything I could get my hands on. I played basketball and night games with neighbor kids. I also schemed ways to make money from the neighbor kids, making homemade toys, cardboard “laptops,” a newspaper, duct tape wallets, etc. It was a really lovely childhood, and I emerged from it with a sense that the world was good and was eager for someone to come do something great in it. And I knew just the guy to do it!

I should also mention that I was raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith that I still love with my whole heart. From this, I learned principles like: Be good. Love others. Prioritize church and family. There’s a plan for you. Things will work out.

Adolescence unfolded for me as adolescence does, and I wound up a Young Man. I decided to fulfill the responsibility to my church to serve a mission, and I was called to New York, New York, Spanish-speaking. I served for two years.

When I came home, I returned to BYU, where I studied English, a major that I loved, then hated, then loved again. Then, I went to law school at the Univerisity of Chicago. I love both these institutions fiercely, for very different reasons, and I would be happy to tell you all about them any time.

Right after graduating law school, I married a remarkable young lady named Michelle, whom I had met at church shortly before she converted from another faith. She and I spent a few years as a dual-professional “power couple,” me as a lawyer and her as a consultant. I job-hopped, as is fairly normal right out of law school, working at a firm in Salt Lake City, then a clerkship there, then another clerkship in Indiana, then a different firm in DC—each for a year.

While at the firm, we had our first child, a girl. Michelle and I decided that the thing that made the most sense for our family was if I quit my job and stayed at home with her. So that’s what I did. We continued moving for my wife’s career, and we continued having children. Now we have three, and we are established in the Baltimore area. I am still at home full-time with my growing babies.

Being a lawyer was super hard. Now, my life is filled with the things that I value the most: my family, my friends, writing, music, creative work, church service. I’m happy to report that, for the most part, the world is good, and it’s eager for us to do something great in it. I’m still working on that; I’ll keep you posted about how it goes.