Hey, I’m Brian. I was born in the midwest and have lived here my whole life. Growing up, I was always a very quiet and shy kid. Being social was definitely not part of my daily agenda. Because of this, I never really ventured away from home and was completely unaware of what the world had to offer outside of my home city. It wasn’t until I left for college where I had been away from home for more than a weekend at one time. I completed my four years and moved back home. I don’t consider my time in college as traveling, but it showed me that I could take care of myself without having the immediate comfort of “home”.

Two years after college, I went on a short trip to Montréal and Quebec City with a few friends. This was my first time flying away from home and experiencing a new country. It wasn’t a long trip, but it sparked a new passion and desire to see more. Before this trip, the only real passion I had was drumming. I have been playing drums since the fifth grade, and to this point, was the only thing I considered myself truly proficient at.

I started training in jiu-jitsu in the summer of 2017. Like drumming, jiu-jitsu quickly became a huge passion. I would train every day and compete as much as I could to gain experience. I quit pursuing any kind of “professional” career and worked whatever jobs would pay the bills and not cut into my training time. My goal is to someday make jiu-jitsu my job, which leads back into my passion for traveling.

Aside from learning how to choke people and break limbs, jiu-jitsu has been the main vehicle that has driven most of my travels. In 2019, I traveled to Puerto Escondido, Mexico, and Northern Ireland as two separate jiu-jitsu camps. I traveled to Iceland in March of 2022, and most recently to Brazil in August of 2023 with my jiu-jitsu team. These travels have opened my eyes to so much more about the world and the many different people who share it. Not just the people themselves, but the conditions they live in, the foods they eat, the languages they speak, the way they interact with each other, and so much more.

“It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn.” -Anthony Bourdain

Although most of my traveling has been with a group, I enjoy traveling alone and plan to do much more of it. I took one solo trip to Arizona in October of 2022. I got to explore Phoenix for several days, train at a friend’s jiu-jitsu school, experience the entire Grand Canyon South Rim, and hike multiple trails through the gorgeous city of Sedona. I wrote a post describing my entire day in Sedona, which you can view here.

I hope you enjoy scrolling through my site and reading about my travels. Feel free to share your travel experiences and recommendations with me! I’m always looking for new places to go! If you have any comments or questions for me, you can contact me here.