Michael Carroll
N Tonawanda, NY
Northeastern University

Last 5 blog entries: A Moment to Reflect Again With the Typing The executive summary. A minor update... Midnight train going anywhere..

Show latest update from from Michael's blog A Moment to Reflect Currently I'm sitting in an apartment North of Seattle that doesn't belong to me. In the other room is the camping mattress I bought in San Francisco when I was expecting to ride up the Pacific Coast and the volume of things I would be packing was an issue because we still didn't even have a tent. I didn't arrive in Seattle on my bike, I didn't even arrive in Seattle with it for that matter. Plans change, not for better or worse sometimes, but they always change, and after a brief stop in Portland, David Smith and myself ended up in Seattle for a few days where we trekked across the city on foot. Amazing how much the speed at which your traveling changes your perception of a place. The mile here and there around the city ate up quite a bit of time, but while we were in Portland the entire city was at our every whim... There was a moment in Portland when someone asked us when we had finished our official tour, and Dave responded to them it was a week ago to the day. I looked at him with such incredulity and almost yelled at him for lying. He looked at me, and I looked at my watch, and it was in fact the 19th; 7 days after we had arrived at the Pacific. Time had officially resumed its hasty movement towards tomorrow and I think it was then and there that the magnitude of it all set in. I was thinking about all the places in between where I was right then and there, and where I was 3 months earlier. It was a flood or memories, and I don't think I said another word in that conversation for some time. I'd also like to take the opportunity to apologize to anyone I told that I would be updating this website with some regularity. I don't know how I could have been under the impression that I would want to spend time in front of a computer when boundless opportunities would present themselves to see things that I likely will never be able to see again, unless of course I do this trip again. Anyone who would like to see pictures of the places along the way can look at the roughly 1300 I took over the summer at www.flickr.com/ozoneis0three and please, please email me if you want to know what's there. But at present, I find myself in a state of mind that I'm sure many of my brothers and sisters in arms are as well: what next... I had been looking into the licensing requirements of different states around the country, and noticed that 2 do not require professional degrees before sitting for the exams, Washington and Colorado. I'm about 600 hours or so shy of fulfilling the minimums for the Intern Development Program, but those hours are some of the hardest to get because they're in the realms of Construction Supervision and Contract Negotiation / Administration. Things which sound very official, and are the things typically around which the really expensive lawsuits are fought. But, assuming I could get those somehow, I could in theory begin taking the exams sometime next year and possibly be a licensed architect by the time I'm 25. Mind you that the young architect's award is capped at age 40... But then what? I'd be 25 and an architect. I'd have a legal title, like doctor, lawyer, judge. Do I just go and lead another Bike and Build trip across the country, before doing something else? I read Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, and he talks about taking steps to live a good story, but what was missing from his book was the back story, his back story. Very few people can afford dam near any of the things he talked about doing, and it seemed he moved in very well connected circles because there were many of his friends whom he talked of going out and doing equally ridiculous things. I realize that I have in fact just finished one of those ridiculous things, but when he mentions that a friends of his committed 25 large to build a school in Africa, I can't say I know of many families who even have that put away to begin with. So my question is this, what do I do about the ridiculousness of it all? And there was an answer for that in Miller's book as well, just keep paddling and eventually the distant shore will come closer, but I get the feeling Miller had a certain amount of netting in which to fall, and I feel not as though I'll be walking the tight rope between the World Trade Center, but running laps on it for some time...

Michael's bio: Hey there! My name is Michael, and I am a 24 year old aspiring architect. I say aspiring because I went to Northeastern University in Boston for Architecture, I work at an architecture firm, but legally my title is Intern-Architect and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth for some reason. I grew up in Buffalo, NY in the city on a bike. Then my parents moved to the suburbs and I hated every minute of it, but that probably fueled my desire to go to school for architecture and rekindle my passion for bikes, so I can't say it was a total waste. Currently I'm living and working in Denver as I get the itch to move around every couple years, and it has taken some time to get acclimated to riding a fixed through these hills. In addition to biking, I played ice hockey and baseball for 17 years, picked up Judo for a short while until I blew out a knee, swim as much as possible, and have mastered the art of splitting wood. I also read anything and everything I can get my hands on, which was how I indirectly found out about Bike and Build. I was browsing the Denver Post's Travel section when I came across an article about this family who vacationed in Costa Rica, but spent the majority of their time helping a small farm make repairs to some of their structures and tools on a coffee plantation. There was an editor's reference to Voluntourism.org for anyone who would be interested in such a thing, and within a matter of minutes I stumbled upon a group called Bike & Build, which might just involve my two favorite things: building things, and bicycling. As I got further into the information, I was in love. As I mentioned, I grew up in Buffalo. It's not exactly the most glamorous of places and most of the people can afford housing because its some of the cheapest in the country. Boston on the other hand has some of the most expensive, and I was in shock to see what rent was anywhere near the city. I think that's what sparked my curiosity in how cities and architects address the issue; we all talked about it in school and at work, but no one really did anything. I worked at offices who did high end residences, or large multi-million dollar luxury housing developments. They all left the same, unsatisfied feeling in my mouth, but to this day I don't know why I never got involved with Habitat or other affordable housing groups while I was there. I am now though, and I definitely think there are going to be a lot of lessons I take away from this trip that will impact much of what I do with the rest of my professional career. But on a lighter note, I'll also get to see the U.S. in one of the most intimate ways possible, covered wagon excluded [Oregon Trail anyone?]. I'm really excited to see the Great Plains, and to ride through the Rockies, but probably even more excited to meet a group of people interested in affordable housing, and be able to make a difference measured in sawn lumber and sweat.

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