I chose to make Alabama my home 10 years ago when I moved down here for college.  As the child of a military family I’ve lived in places as far away as the Azores in Portugal or as close as Chattanooga, Tennessee before I made my way here. Even as a child, I sought to make the community I was in a better place than I found it. I joined my local Boy Scout Troop at the age of 10 and spent 8 years serving as a helping hand to volunteer projects around me, and then as a mentor to the younger members of the troop before I earned the rank of Eagle Scout and aged out.

I moved to Montevallo, AL in 2016 to study biology at the University of Montevallo. While I was there I got to serve as the Treasurer for Lambda Chi Alpha and again for Purple Side (one of the teams behind UMs unique homecoming tradition) and eventually President of my fraternity. During this time I held multiple jobs and still was able to graduate with honors in 2020.  

While I thought I would find myself working in a lab upon graduation, the hiring freezes associated with Covid meant I would retain my position at Cedar Creek Nursery for over a year after graduation. During this time I picked up a second job to pay the bills, often working overtime just to get by.  Eventually I was able to become a Stack Tester, working with environmental engineers at industrial plants across the Southeast, to ensure they were compliant with the relevant regulations.  This was an extraordinarily demanding role that involved climbing smoke stacks, sometimes 200+ feet in the air,  and required us to pull up the necessary equipment via rope. Doing this day in and day out for two and half years taught me what hard work really meant.  Regularly working 50-60 hours a week since graduating college formed my values around labor and what our employers owe us. Wanting more out of life than work, I left that job in 2023. Since then I have had the enormous privilege of managing the Helena location of Cedar Creek Nursery. If there is one thing I’ve learned it’s this:

 

Time is the most precious resource any of us possess, the one thing that will never be returned. While work is an inevitable part of life, we should be in control of how that time is spent. If you are willing to work then you deserve more than just getting by.