Dallas, Baton Rouge, Mississippi

Born in Dallas while his father attended seminary. Grew up in Baton Rouge. Family moved to rural Mississippi in 1999 when his parents feared Y2K.

Born in Dallas, Texas while my father was attending Dallas Theological Seminary. We moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where I grew up.

In 1999, my parents feared the Y2K computer bug would cause societal collapse. We relocated to Tylertown, Mississippi — deep rural, population barely over a thousand. It didn't collapse. But something about that move — the upheaval, the strangeness of starting over in a place that felt like another century — shaped how I think about reinvention.