I graduated this weekend with a degree in computer science.

Plymouth State and New Hampshire

When the time came to move on from junior hockey, I felt uncertain about my path forward. I had no sense of direction until my conversation with Coach Russell from a school I hadn't yet heard of in a state I knew nothing about.

My decision to become a Panther was driven by an opportunity to continue the pursuit of my hockey career. The environment, lifestyle, and education were somewhat of an afterthought. Upon arriving in the fall of 2022, I realized this would become my driving force of my love for Plymouth, NH.

The people, the mountains, and the slower pace of life made this move a welcoming transition. As my connection within the community grew over time, I got to share many adventures with many great people.

Panther Hockey

Two conference championships, among many other special memories with the family.

Coming in as a freshman, Plymouth had been a conference powerhouse winning almost every year for a long time. A national tournament win just hadn't been realized yet.

We set out to change that. Getting stunned at home my first year, we got over the hump and won the first national tournament game in school history the following year.

None of us leave as national champions. But the whole team grew up together, and we shared the euphoria and the heartbreak as a family. The guys in my class were there for all of it: Lucas Jones, Payton Schaly, Will Redick, Brandon Shantz, and Brendan Doyle.

Our goal was to leave the program better than we found it. I believe this class did. Not because of any one result over four years, but in the way the program stands today.

I look forward to watching the next group take the program further than we did.

Life in New England

Plymouth reminded me of home in Revelstoke, BC. A small town tucked into the mountains, where you walk everywhere and recognize everyone.

The town was granted in 1763 and settled the year after, on land where the Baker and Pemigewasset rivers meet at the foot of the White Mountains. Before that it was an Abenaki village. The rivers were the reason a town grew here at all. They were the roads, and this was the crossing.

New England is old in a way the west isn't. The coast was settled first, and the mountains came later, reached on foot by people who carried almost nothing. Towns rose around timber and water, and many of them didn't last. Walk into the woods and you still find cellar holes and stone walls where villages used to be.

Coming from a young part of the world, that was the strange part. The history sits in plain view, and you live inside a story that started long before you and keeps going after you leave.

The White Mountains

The White Mountains got to be my playground. They are the highest range in the Northeast, small next to the peaks back home, but rough in their own way. The weather turns without warning, and a lot of the trail runs above the treeline where there is nothing to hide behind.

One that stands out is the Pemi Loop. Around thirty miles and nine thousand feet of climbing through the Pemigewasset Wilderness, over the Franconia and Bond ranges (hitting eight 4000 footers). Lucas and I blindly agreed to join Max and Angus on a one-day pull, moving from dark to dark. Fifty kilometers of ridge and forest. It was epic, but once was enough.

Botany

Somewhere in the mix I became a plant guy. I enjoyed the nature around me and attempted to bring that feeling into our home on campus.

I found myself taking clippings from overgrown plants around the school, germinating different species from seed, and purchasing non-native plants directly.

Tending to plants is something I've always enjoyed, but was enhanced during my stay in Plymouth.

Studying

I struggled at first with the structure of a liberal arts institution. I felt like my time and energy were wasted in realms that didn't involve what I'd chosen to study (computers).

This mindset shifted with an art class I had early on. I began to embrace the exploration in subjects I hadn't previously given important weight to.

I found a joy in the process of creating things. I studied yoga and breathing, began to write and draw, and brought attention to how my surroundings affected the organization of my internal self.

My course load became computer heavy in my junior and senior years. My joy in the creative process spilled into the tech side. It was fun. Designing and iterating 3D printed components, imagining and implementing user experience flows in applications, dismantling algorithms on paper then transferring them to code. I loved the process.

This was a fun project here playing with physical stuff alongside programming the computer running the loop:

Family

Completing a higher education meant a lot to my family. It was special to share my journey with them. They offered endless support throughout my time at school and for this I'm very grateful.