Hi. I’m Tess.

I’m a 32-year-old writer, traveler, van builder, business manager, reader, aspiring lawyer, occasional farmer, former waitress, anti-racist, minimalist, feminist, youngest of 8. I’ve spent the last 4 years living nomadically while writing my first novel and, more recently, managing an online business.

*inhales deeply*

In the words of Whitman: “I am large, I contain multitudes.” And I want to share them. But first, the most critical piece of information to begin with is this:

In preschool, my teachers nicknamed me

“The Puzzle Queen.”

Backstory: I was often left at preschool pickup (my dad worked days and my mom worked nights — that, and they had 8 children). After school, my teachers would take me back inside to wait for my parents. And in that moment, I’d have the whole classroom to myself — toys, dress-ups, blocks, the rice table(!), paints, books, you name it. However, to the amusement of my teachers, I always went straight for the puzzles, working silently and diligently alone on the carpet.

Right now: reflecting on these puzzles feels important. Because Preschool Tess tells you the story of Adult Tess:

if there are missing pieces, I find them;

if there’s a larger problem, I look for smaller solutions;

I know unequivocally that every piece has its place, that many parts make a whole;

I know our different shapes, sizes, and colors is what ultimately connects us;

I know the answers are right in front of me, if I have the patience to look for them;

and lastly, and most importantly, I know I cannot force something that doesn’t fit.

The Longer Story About Me:

*grabs popcorn*

*and you should too*

For years, I played it safe. I did the sports — lacrosse, soccer; I got the A’s — Honors, Cum Laude; I went to college — Salisbury University, ‘13; I received the degree — English, Literature Concentration; I obtained the student loans — colossal, crushing; and I moved back home — Baltimore, MD.

Out of college, I couldn’t afford unpaid internships at magazines and newspapers, nor the low-paying administrative work, nor the sparse freelance writing gigs (see: student loan debt). So, I began working multiple jobs, including, but not limited to: waitress, nanny, barista, bartender, and makeup-artist.

2 years out of college, I felt it. I was forcing something that didn’t fit.

In order to find the missing piece, I knew I had to keep looking. So, I packed my belongings, and drove to Charleston, SC. Within days, all of the pieces fell into place. I found a good job, a lease, friends, family… an identity, a life.

I completed

my own puzzle.

The inevitable backbone I built in Charleston F&B fostered my confidence. As a result, I began sharing my writing on Instagram, a platform I used haphazardly.

Until one day, it changed my life.

In 2017, I entered an Instagram giveaway hosted by Kate Fagan and Kathryn Budig, to join them on a writing and yoga retreat. And I won.

By the end of that dreamlike and life-changing week, I had two earnest and supportive mentors; but more than that, I had a newfound belief in my writing career. It felt like they had offered me a billion new pieces to play. As if I had been handed an entirely new puzzle: my life as a writer.

It was more colorful and stimulating than anything I had ever attempted.

In 2019, I committed my life to completing it. I left Charleston and began pursuing my passions:

writing and traveling.

For months, I lived in a 4-door sedan, pitching a tent each night and driving the next day till I found something new to explore. I drove cross-country 6 times, backpacked Southeast Asia, road the West Coast, visited countless national parks, met strangers, and saw almost every state. During that transition (from life in the city to life on the road), every part of my lifestyle was flipped upside down. Normal routines disintegrated around me.

And I loved every bit of it.

That is… until the pandemic hit, and my life on the road came to a halt. Luckily, I settled at my sister’s home in Northern CA, where I found silence and stillness amongst the redwoods for the first time in a long time. I read books, listened to podcasts, explored my habits, my past, my relationships, myself (like many others). I learned how to work on farms; how to raise, dispatch, skin, and butcher farm animals; how to plant, maintain, and harvest vegetable gardens; how to grow, dry, and trim cannabis. In short: I learned a lot about what I do, why I do it, and how I do it.

In 2021, taking into consideration all that I had learned, I commitment to life on the road full-time. On the eve of my 30th birthday, I purchased a 2015 Ford Transit 350, and began to build a home in it. A few months into the van build, I was hired by Kathryn Budig — a full-circle moment. Kathryn helped draw my dreams into reality when she selected me as the retreat winner back in 2017, and now I have the opportunity to return that kindness to her every single day, by helping with her dream creation, Haus of Phoenix.

In October 2021, I finished the van build, and I’ve been living and working on the road ever since. Which brings me to today. This moment.

And all I’m left with is gratitude.

I am alive another day, with the chance to explore places my eyes have never seen, land my feet have never touched, in a home that I built with my own two hands. Every day on the road continues to be the hardest yet most rewarding task I have ever given myself.

I owe it to myself, and to the people who helped me get here, to document this incredible chapter of my existence.

Creating this website felt like the perfect place to start…