I imagine it is about time that I let everyone know what I have been doing with my life. I graduated almost a year ago and have figured out to combine all of my passions in this world into one path towards the future. With my loving and supportive girlfriend Baylee Anderson at my side and my forgiving family at my back, I am excited about the future.

Those that know me know I was wired to be an entrepreneur. I have always loved working hard with my hands and have taken an affinity for motorcycles. Having moved to Baltimore City, a city in need of ambitious people, I have decided to start a business.

It’s called the Baltimore Motorcycle Collective and it’s a DIY (Do It Yourself) Community Motorcycle Garage. We provide rentable workspace, tools and storage space for people in the Greater Baltimore Area. We also host How-To Classes for everything from basic maintenance to lacing rims. We create opportunities for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford or store a motorcycle and might not be prepared to work on their bike. It will be an honor to pass on knowledge about skilled trades including metal working, engine work etc. This is especially important in a city where many of the youth never learned to use tools growing up and have no idea how a vehicle goes, stops and turns.

I mentioned above that I am combining all of my passions. My most recent passion was in political organizing and I am not incorporating that into my business.  For some, including myself, this place will be an escape from everything else going on in this world, an escape that is becoming harder to find these days. However, instead of continuing to climb the ladder in Washington D.C., I am going to take things into my own hands. Instead of taking another job, I hope to create some jobs and prepare people for careers. Jobs, after all, are so important.

When I conceived the idea to create this business, it was because I wanted to make it possible for others to take life into their own hands like I did when I started restoring motorcycles 7 years ago. I hope people will rent workspace and build motorcycles until they are able to move on to bigger and better things, like I have. We might cultivate professional welders, leather-workers, painters and more because we made it possible for them to get their feet wet. If I am able to influence 50 people’s lives for the better before I retire, this will all have been worth it. It would be amazing if we were able to inspire youth in the area to take on a trade because of the coolness factor of this place.

So please, I implore you, friends. If you ever meet anyone that is interested in motorcycles, even if they don’t have one yet, tell them about the Baltimore Motorcycle Collective.  Chances are, they would like to do some tinkering on it and we might be just what they needed in order to take that plunge. Who knows, maybe they just pop in for use of our tire machine.

Anyway, stay tuned for more posts about the slices of life that will be occur in this place. Please pray for my success and pray for Baltimore.