the backstory...

I grew up on a farm in small-town rural Kansas.  Some of my earliest memories were about day dreaming of life in place beyond what I knew in Kansas. My mom noticing I wasn't really into the traditional activities that boys my age were like softball, fishing and hunting was always looking for activities for me to do.   She enrolled me in a world traveler's club (best gift ever).  Monthly I received a cardboard box with items from a themed county from around the world.  Each box typically contained a couple of toys from the that county or area of the world, maps, brochures, fake currency, and most important a plastic record in which I would be required to tape on a heavy coin in the assigned spot.  Suddenly my room was filled with the sounds of a place far beyond what I knew.  My favorite box was from Nepal with contained a prayer where.  I had now idea were Nepal was or that there were other religions in the world but that prayer wheel was used a lot praying to Jesus. 

I was that kid in high school who always had a camera in his backpack and often around my neck.  I was the default photographer for most of high school and college.