About Philippe

I’m Philippe. Odds are, as you’re reading this, I’m probably sitting behind a computer or a book in a coffeeshop around Santa Barbara. Among other things, I’m a writer, a speaker, a student, a teacher, a traveller, a speaker, an autism specialist, a social justice advocate, an avid Phillies fan, and a photographer.

I’ve come to learn that our lives are stories, contain stories, and are part of a bigger story. You can’t not tell a story with your life, and whether it’s a happy story, a sad story, a boring story, a Love story, an adventurous one, depends on the choices you make. I want to be a great storyteller with my life. I also want to help others connect with the stories that surround their lives.

I have a B.A. in Communication from UC Santa Barbara, and I’m also working on one in Global Studies. I have dreams of working towards international justice, and I think my calling is to fight human trafficking and global injustices. For now, though, it’s just one day at a time.

I really like to travel. I’ve been blessed to make it onto every continent minus Antarctica, and believe me, I’d be down to step foot onto some ice shelves. I’ve lived in Illinois, Philadelphia, San Diego, Italy, and Buenos Aires. In addition to the obvious English, I also speak Spanish and Italian, although the latter is a struggle to maintain. I’m in the process of learning French. I love the challenge and opportunity of learning a new language.

When my mind isn’t halfway around the globe, I like reading like crazy, going around and taking pictures, making and solving scavenger hunts, sipping on yerba mate, playing baseball and watching Phillies games, messing around on my ukulele, and cooking. On weekends, I like going out on bikes, and kayaks, and other outdoor adventures. I also really like to speak, and embrace speaking opportunities. My favorite thing to do, though, is to meet people and hear their stories.

I live in a house named the Love Dungeon with the most awesome set of guys you could ask for. I’m really blessed to have some incredible people in my life.

I like to write about the things I love, which are a wide range of things- relationships and dating, non-profits, books, music, movies, photography and design, leadership, my own experiences, God, hope, forgiveness, travel, ideas, language learning, and lessons I’ve learned from life.

Current storylines in my life:

  • Working as a clinician for the Koegel Autism Center in Santa Barbara, applying the Pivotal Response Treatment to help children with autism live better lives.
  • Teaching a class of Public Speaking to undergraduates at UCSB.
  • Running the webshow Ariel & Philippe with my roommate.
  • Helping run Bridges at UCSB, a group designed to meet the social, practical, and spiritual needs of international students on our campus.

You can find me rather active on my Tumblr. I write a lot more about my personal life and stories every day, and post more of my pictures.

I’m a rather reluctant Twitter user, but I’m a Twitter user nonetheless. Might as well follow me.

One of these days, I’ll get around to making a proper page for my photography and design work. In the meantime, there’s my Flickr.

I’m not a very good musician, but I make these songs just for fun.

About
Once I was asked the very simple question. "What's your life story?"
Little did my friend know that her question would prompt me to begin ambitiously pining that question. I had been discovering that our lives contain stories, are stories, and are part of a bigger story, and connecting with these stories and their Author results in a life really being life.
Over the course of a month and a week in Argentina, I would spend nights in my homestay without internet just typing furiously away my story. It didn’t feel like work at all, it was as natural as stream of consciousness writing is. When I finished, I wound up with over 200 pages on Microsoft Word. Single spaced.
What I had was my story on paper. It was a story about redefining love, rediscovering faith, and releasing hang-ups. It's a story worth telling, as is anyone's who pays attention to story in their lives.
In a culture so focused on facts and arguments, it's important that we don't lose sight of how humans really experience the world: through story.
This is my story. I'm just putting it out there. There will be some moments I look back on fondly, and there will be some moments where I will be very vulnerable with you.
I will be posting a bit from my story everyday. It's a long read, what I wrote. This will probably be a lot more manageable.
Thanks for following along.

The story begins on 30 January. Subscribe via RSS.