• Truth, integrity and justice

    I decided to pursue journalism after spending 18 months working toward a position with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2018, when investigations targeting Russian interference in the 2016 election had led to heightened animosity toward federal law enforcement agencies

  • Whole and complete yet broken

    My work is a 15-minute walk from the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento, California, and when I went to work as an essential employee April 20, I didn’t expect for the Reopen California protests happening that day to make

  • Finding our Muse

    Around our first wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided that we wanted a dog. After successfully a houseplant alive for most of that year, we joked that a puppy would be the next step in the natural progression of

  • Sacrificing convenience

    I went grocery shopping today, which, historically, has been an easy task—go from point A to point B, purchase goods, return to point A—but it seems to get more and more difficult as time goes on. My wife was diagnosed

  • A Tuesday with Punch

    My grandfather passed away in December of 2019. He was one month shy of 96. I was named after him, in a way—while he was born Alexander Christopher, and I gladly carry on his middle name, everyone called him Punch.

  • Western evocations

    When I moved to Oklahoma around the age of 10, I was a certifiable Yank in many ways, thrust into this foreign world of horse ranches and pickup trucks. It didn’t take long after we first arrived at some unincorporated

  • Moving pixels

    My mom moved my younger brother and I half-way across the country not long after I celebrated my 10th birthday. We left a lot of the life we knew in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla behind—mostly because a

  • The kindest people on earth

    (Originally written on September 2, 2014) This month is the beginning of a very full life for me; tomorrow, I start working on my Master’s degree. On top of working two jobs, full time graduate school is daunting. For weeks,