Well hello there, and thanks for stopping by. I’m not the greatest at talking about myself, so this is going to be a bumpy trip for both you and me.

As you may have guessed by the fact that I now work at Jalopnik, I am quite into cars. Whether they’re new, old, expensive or cheap enough for me to actually afford, I’m into them.

My fascination with all things automotive started well before I can remember with model cars being pushed around on my carpet.

After that it was riding around in my John Deere toy tractor and showing my brother how to properly drift it. (Go downhill at top speed, cut sharp right and slam the plastic gear shift into reverse – in case you were wondering.)

This love affair with all things that move soon turned into a not-so-healthy obsession with illegal Top Gear video clips on YouTube and piles of every car magazine you could think of.

My obsession grew with age and eventually I was able to buy this money pit disaster of a 2007 BMW Z4 you see before you. Don’t worry it’s a six speed with the bigger engine.

It came with me when I moved to The East Village at the height of the pandemic – which was an interesting choice on my end. Other than stranding me twice in less than a year, it’s been flawless. I also bought it before the entire used car market went cuckoo bananas, so my worst purchase of all time may actually be my best? Who’s really to say?

While I have all of the makings of a “gearhead,” there was always something I felt was missing: a community to go with it. Car culture is not exactly blossoming in northern New Jersey where I grew up (or Lower Manhattan where I now live) – and because of that I have never really had an outlet to talk about cars. That is unless you count an “outlet” as borrowing my friend’s Civic and complaining about the lack of a volume knob.

Now that I have my literal dream job I’m excited to finally be part of a real, bona fide car community. I’d also add that I’m especially excited to be able to talk

about cars.

Writing about something I love is a very new world for me. Since graduating from Penn State in 2019 (go state, baby), I have been working behind the scenes at a news station in New York. I honestly thought that hard news would be the career path I’d have forever. But, three applications to Jalopnik later, they finally decided to roll the dice and give me a shot.

I’ll finish up by saying again that I’m just happy to be here and be a part of a thriving community that I cannot wait to contribute to. So strap in, because I have about 25 years worth of opinions you all are going to have to listen to.