Project Manager /
Ruth Obenchain Recreation Center (formerly the Gearhart Gym)
Aug 2016 – Present
As Project Manager / CEO, I have overseen the long-term restoration and operation of the Ruth Obenchain Recreation Center. This includes coordinating volunteers, managing memberships, organizing events, and guiding both current and future improvement projects. What started as a restoration effort has become a long-term commitment to maintaining and growing a space for the Bly community.
Ruth Obenchain Recreation Center Website (Learn More)
Click to view the full RORC gallery.
Wildland Firefighting Guard School
I completed the Wildland Firefighting Guard School, which is required to become a wildland firefighter. I chose not to pursue firefighting as a full-time career at that time.
Work & Travel Abroad
Brightview Dairy — New Zealand
Sep 2019 – Mar 2020
My mom hosted a foreign exchange student, Nicole, who came from New Zealand, and her family came to visit us before she returned home. Her dad briefly mentioned there might be an opportunity for me to come over and work for them. They owned Brightview Dairy.
Two years later, I reached out to Nicole and asked if that opportunity was still an option. It was. Within a month, I got my things together and went to New Zealand, where I lived and worked until March 2020.
As COVID began to emerge globally, I made the decision to return to the United States, unsure whether waiting longer would leave me unable to get home.
When I landed in Reno, Nevada, I got off the plane and went to get into an Uber, assuming life continued on the same way it had in New Zealand. I attempted to hop into the passenger seat so I could have a conversation with the driver, but before I even got in, he took me aside. He handed me a mask, squirted hand sanitizer into my hand, and told me I needed to sit in the back seat.
It was a shock. In New Zealand, masks weren’t being worn and it didn’t feel like a major concern. I was also expecting my family and I would go out to eat dinner that night, and that wasn’t an option either. It was a complete shift, and suddenly I was back home with no clear plan.
Click to view the full New Zealand gallery.
Apprentice / Journeyman Line Clearance Tree Trimmer
Trees, LLC
Jun 2020 – Aug 2022
In June 2020, I started an apprenticeship with Trees, LLC, which was initially a blast. My older brother Luke taught me much of what I needed to know, along with my foreman at the time, Shiloh. We worked hard and genuinely had a good time.
Towards the end of my apprenticeship, tree trimming no longer felt rewarding. It was just a paycheck, and I’ve always been excited to learn new things. Doing the same task daily drained the excitement I had experienced elsewhere, but I finished the apprenticeship early and got my journeyman card.
Click to view the full Trees, LLC photos gallery.
Emergency Medical Technician
Klamath Community College
Sep 2021 – Mar 2022
During my apprenticeship, I enrolled in the EMT program at Klamath Community College, attending classes after work from 5:00–9:00 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays, and 5:00–7:00 PM on Fridays.
Inspired by my family’s volunteer spirit and my own experiences, I pursued emergency medical training as a way to give back to the community that had given me so much. The program reinforced my interest in service-oriented work and deepened my respect for the responsibility involved in caring for others during critical moments.
Click to view the full EMT training photos gallery.
Travel — Career Break
Sep 2022 – Apr 2023
Travel
New Zealand
In October, I returned to New Zealand to attend Nicole’s wedding. While there, I visited Asplundh’s headquarters in Auckland and toured the facility to gain a better understanding of what an opportunity with the company might look like.
After returning home, I took time to consider my options. During that period, several factors at home changed, and I ultimately decided not to return to New Zealand to work for Asplundh.
Eventually, I reached a point where I needed income and wasn’t motivated enough to figure something else out. I gave up on forcing direction and planned to return to work at Trees.
Before returning to Trees, the union asked if I would first take a short-term assignment with West Lane Tree Service in Christmas Valley, as they needed an equipment operator for that time.
Equipment Operator
West Lane Tree Service
May 2023
A short-term union job operating a skid steer with a mulcher. Three weeks total, 116 hours onsite.
Around this time, a Bly resident, Homer Green, fell and entered poor health. He needed help but refused to leave his home. I, along with a few others, stepped in. I was able to help get hospice involved in his care.
Journeyman Line Clearance Tree Trimmer
Trees, LLC
Jun 2023 – Jul 2023
Following the union job, I returned to Trees.
Foreman
Trees, LLC
Jul 2023 – May 2024
After one month, I became a foreman for the first time. Once again, life felt increasingly stagnant, so I enrolled in a Firefighter 1 Academy at Klamath Community College.
Structure Firefighter 1
Klamath Community College
Sep 2023 – Dec 2023
Classes were held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM, while I worked for Trees the other two days each week. During this time, Homer’s health declined significantly, and so did mine. I was exhausted.
I completed the academy and was proud to finish, though I knew it wasn’t my best effort. I returned to full-time work while continuing to care for Homer. Eventually, I moved in with him and spent nearly all my time outside of work with him. Even now, I still wake up at night out of habit, rushing to check on him, forgetting he is no longer here.
Caregiving — Career Break
Bly, Oregon
May 2024 – Jul 2024
I took time off to be a full-time caregiver for Homer, who was 92 years old at that time and on hospice, with no close family members available.
In June, Homer’s only surviving child, Michael, was hospitalized. I took Homer to visit him several times before Michael passed away. We cremated Michael, purchased a grave site, and arranged for his remains to be placed in the casket with Homer upon his death.
Homer passed away on July 31, 2024. I was at the lowest point of my life. He left the house to me, but I couldn’t stand to be there without him.
Travel — Career Break
United States
Aug 2024 – Sep 2024
Following Homer’s death, I traveled nearly 10,000 miles across the country to clear my mind before returning to work. I visited many historic homes and heard stories of people who struggled for one to two years after similar experiences. I feared that reality but knew I needed time to reorient my life and find new purpose.
Returning home was hard. The house was exactly as I had left it. Nothing had changed.
Journeyman Line Clearance Tree Trimmer
Trees, LLC
Oct 2024 – Apr 2025
Foreman
Trees, LLC
Apr 2025 – Present
I returned to work and currently serve as a foreman. As strange as it may seem, August 2025 is when I finally started to feel like myself again. I slowly boxed up Homer’s belongings, completed long-overdue projects, and made the house feel like mine. It was a slow and depressing process, and I truly feel bad for the people I worked with or interacted with during that time. It just wasn’t me.
Now, I feel closer to my teenage energy and dreams again, but with new grounding, like owning a home and understanding responsibility differently. I’m excited for each day ahead. I’m not trying to escape anything anymore.
Closing Reflection
As I write this, it feels like a constant back and forth — depending on Trees, but always wanting to get away from it. That tension is where a lot of my excitement for the future comes from. I don’t want to work for Trees forever, but I also need to figure out how to value it, because it’s the thing that has held my life together over this five-year period.
I don’t really know what that means yet. Was I a good employee, a bad employee, someone with unorganized ambition, or something else entirely? I’m not sure. What I do know is that I feel like I’m finally getting my life on track, and I’m genuinely excited for what’s ahead.
That’s where a website like this helps — it gives me a place to share my story, reflect on it honestly, and build forward from here. Hopefully, everything above represents the struggle of trying to find myself.
I have friends who worked extremely hard to pay off their houses financially. Maybe I’ve done something similar, but through practical life experience instead. I don’t know yet. We’ll see what happens.
A Reminder from an Earlier Season
“We are born with the gift of not knowing, to delight in learning life’s simple joys. Our bodies bear the price of adventure, and sleep, our return to essence.”
— Quentin Nichols
That line emerged during a period when my writing — and my website as a whole — was shaped by grief, reflection, and a deep engagement with philosophy, faith, and the nature of existence. At the time, I wrote openly and vulnerably because I was actively processing loss, meaning, and responsibility in real time. Looking back, that philosophy hasn’t disappeared; it has simply been absorbed. What once needed expression has become part of my internal framework, now carried quietly within the broader arc of my life story rather than spoken outright.
