I am originally from San Jose, California, where I grew up in the 1980s. After dropping out of high school at age 16, I went directly to De Anza Community College. After graduating De Anza at age 18, I served a year in the California Conservation Corps (CCC, named after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s). I returned to UC Berkeley in 1995, where I graduated with a B.A. in English literature in 1997. Life led me to the private sector in San Francisco, where I worked a series of jobs from television spot sales and eventually IT. In 2005, I returned to school, receiving a master's degree in 2007. I received my tenure track role at Jefferson Community College in 2008, where I have worked ever since. 

As part of continuing education, I tried several graduate programs over the years, but I couldn't seem to find the right fit. In 2024, I began studying for a Ph.D. in Composition and Applied Linguistics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I hope to graduate in 2028 or 2029. 

Although I study and teach English in higher education, reading and writing weren't my natural tendencies. I was always a "numbers" guy, doing well in math classes and taking successfully courses as high as calculus. A teacher in my high school, Mr. Sinclair, in my sophomore year, helped light a passion for great literature. I saw in literature beauty that, at that time, I did not see in mathematics. Around the same time, I began keeping a personal journal. I kept that journal off and on until I was around 30, when I began to keep it regularly. Strangely, I did not develop a strong reading habit until I was in my mid-thirties. 

I drove from California to Alaska and back in one month, hiked the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevadas in 26 days, worked outdoors building and maintaining trails, played in many rock bands, wrote and recorded my own music, and self-published a novella, among other varied experiences.

Currently I work in northern New York with my wife, Dr. Christine Pristash, who also works at my institution.