POE CASAVANT

There is nothing that scares me quite like the ocean. Dark, mysterious, and inhospitable to human life; even a casual snorkeling trip can twist my stomach into knots. Swimming into deeper water, watching as the sea floor drops away into nothingness, conjures up images of creatures with unblinking eyes and slippery tentacles, just out of sight. As human settlements spring up at even the most unlikely corners of the globe, the oceans have become earth’s final frontier. The grea

My siblings are one of the greatest joys in my life. There are six of us, a ridiculous number that I can only blame on my parents' insanity and religious zealotry. In true Lord of the Flies fashion, we divided ourselves into subgroups; alliances and partnerships that shifted over the years. One of the longest-running duos was myself and my youngest brother. Both quiet, both bookish, and both severely addicted to K’NEX, we spent many long hours deep in philosophical discussion

How a Disastrous Climb in Russia Became a Cherished Memory In my many years of climbing, I’ve been (un?)lucky enough to experience a fall so drastic, I had a moment to think, “Well, Poe, you’ve gone and done it. This is how it all ends.” Sadly, in those few seconds, I wasn’t greeted with flashes of my life, as Hollywood would have us believe, but instead, just a wave of anticipation for the incoming pain. Clearly, the fall wasn’t fatal. It left me bruised and battered, but ab

There are few things my husband and I agree on. He’s the maximalist to my minimalist, the city boy to my crunchy-granola backpacker. For fifteen years, we’ve existed in a complex web of truces, overlooking the things we disagree on, in an attempt to focus on our shared loves. Of all our common philosophies, one stands out as my favorite: There is nothing that cannot be improved by a little competition. Tom is an Apple devotee, and has proudly sported the Apple Watch since its