Growing up in the suburban Midwest meant that I grew up internalizing the fact that Nature is everywhere. While some might consider the Midwest to be relatively lacking in natural beauty, I spent my childhood falling in love with the shores of Lake Michigan’s city beaches, hiking through the restored Illinoisan Prairies, and exploring the countless forest preserves dropped down between highways and strip malls; everything that connects me to the Earth today, I owe to a childhood spent in the subtle beauty of Illinois.

In fact, it was in my own backyard where my most formative experiences with the Earth took place. My favorite afternoons were those spent planting our veggie garden, standing with my feet in the dirt, watching my toes disappear beneath the rich soil and, most of all, making friends with the Worms that lived in our garden beds. Years later, when I learned that Worms often die on the sidewalk, stranded after coming up from the flooded soil, I made a commitment to carry those I found on the scorched sidewalk back to the dirt. It was in these moments, standing in the dirt and ferrying stranded Worms back to safety, that I felt the first intimations of my lifelong love and commitment to the Earth.

Twenty years later, after graduating with a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Loyola University Chicago’s School of Environmental Sustainability and Interdisciplinary Honors Program, I am so grateful to be putting this love into professional and full-time practice as I move into my seventh year with Kerulos.