Hi, I’m Will. Through my first 40 years on this planet I’ve been fortunate to have led a pretty amazing life. I am the firstborn of two loving parents (Bill and Anna) and a big brother to two siblings (Deirdre and Jack). Growing up in Plymouth, MA, I had a pretty standard middle-class childhood of public school, riding bikes with my friends, and spending long summer days on the beaches of Cape Cod. Some of my favorite core memories though, come from the family camping and hiking trips we’d take in the mountains of New England each summer. I can’t thank my parents enough for exposing me to the outdoors at such a young age, as it’s a passion that has stuck with me and shaped who I’ve become today.

Since I was a child, running has been a consistent thread throughout my life. My dad has always been an avid runner, so many weekend mornings were spent at local road races - either watching him compete or helping behind the scenes, from handing out water to managing the start/finish areas. In high school, I caught the runner bug myself and spent the next four years pounding the roads, trails, and tracks around Plymouth, competing at a high level.

In college, my interests started to shift. I took some time off from running and decided to play rugby (not very well) and dedicate more time to hiking throughout New England. I did keep a foot in the running world though, spending more weekends working at races to make a few bucks. I was fortunate to get more and more involved with DMSE Sports, the company owned by former Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray. DMSE puts on many of the premier running events throughout New England and over the years, I began to take on greater responsibility at them.

Academically, I found myself gravitating towards an interest in microbiology and eventually discovered a real passion for epidemiology my senior year. Today, due to COVID we all know what epidemiology is, but at the time it was a new and exciting track for me to follow. I went into my final undergraduate semester with no intention of staying in school for a master’s degree, but at the encouragement of my advisor I took the plunge and continued for two more years at UMass Amherst to complete an MS in Epidemiology, with a focus on infectious disease. 

Upon graduating, I scored my dream job as an infectious disease epidemiologist with the MA Department of Public Health (MDPH). For the next 4+ years I worked with an incredible team of colleagues doing disease surveillance and public health education throughout the state. It was a rewarding role in many ways and while I loved most aspects of my job, over time I felt constrained working the 9-5 office life and knew that I needed to make a change. In the summer of 2014, I left and set out on a three-month solo road trip around the US, spending most of my time in the red rock deserts and high alpine peaks of the western states, hiking, camping, and exploring the natural beauty of the US.

After my “summer sabbatical” and a short-lived stint working for a tech company it was time for my first big career pivot. Fortunately, I was able to parlay the part-time weekend gig that I’d had with DMSE and turn it into a full-time role. It was a great fit because I was able to work outside, have a flexible schedule, and most importantly, I loved the amazing team of guys and gals that made up the DMSE family. The job also afforded me some incredible travel opportunities, notably the chance to go to the Great White Continent in 2019 to provide operational support for the Marathon Tours Antarctica Marathon.

In the spring of 2020, all of our big event plans at DMSE went out the window due to a little thing called COVID. Without any work to be done, the DMSE team and I mutually agreed to part ways, and I ended up going back to MDPH as a consultant. There, I was tasked with COVID reporting at long-term care facilities, along with some other projects that I’d been involved in during my first stint on the job. It felt great to do something helpful, even if I wasn’t exactly on the front lines fighting the disease. 

That summer was a big time of transition as my girlfriend, Courtney, had just finished her PhD at Northeastern, and had recently been accepted for a postdoc position at a university in Okinawa, Japan called OIST. For me to join her in Japan we needed to get married, so on July 24, 2020 we unceremoniously got ourselves hitched, which suited our low-key sensibilities just fine. As summer rolled into fall, the borders to Japan remained closed but in December 2020 they finally opened long enough for us to make our move halfway around the world, where we’d live the next chapter of our lives. 

While Courtney dove into her academic career, I was in search of my next one. My mind gravitated back to my experience in Antarctica in 2019 and how amazing it seemed to be an expedition guide aboard one of the cruise ships. I reached out to the expedition leader from that voyage (shoutout to Danny Johnston) and he pointed me in the right direction to becoming a guide. The biggest hurdle was coming back to the United States to complete a few weeks of training for seafarers safety, first aid, and small boat driving. Then just like that, I was ready to find my first Expedition Guide job.

Fast forward to September 25, 2022 and I found myself walking into the shipyard in Ålesund, Norway to embark on my first contract on an expedition ship. Since that milestone date, guiding has afforded me the privilege to make a living exploring some of the most remote and beautiful places on earth. From cruising in Zodiacs amongst penguins and icebergs in Antarctica, to standing in the tundra of Greenland as Arctic foxes dart in and out of their dens, I’ve experienced more “pinch me” moments in the last few years than most people have in a lifetime. And it’s not just the stunning places I’ve been fortunate to see, it’s the human connections that make the job what it is. From guests to other expedition team members to the crew who make the ship run, I’ve loved getting to share these moments with so many special individuals. 

While expedition guiding is an incredible job, it does come with its own set of challenges. The biggest one for me was spending half the year at sea, away from Courtney as she continued to pursue her academic career. Just recently, however, Courtney joined the guiding world and we were beginning to align not only our work schedules, but our life goals going forward. We saw a future together that we were excited to build towards, working side-by-side on ships, traveling the world, and finally saving some money to buy a place of our own after living a transient lifestyle for the past three years. 

Out of the blue, cancer swooped in and put our visions of the future on hold… for now. I’m going to keep fighting for that future we envisioned every day. The final outcome may end up being different than we originally wanted, and there’s nothing I can do about that, but I’ll be damned if cancer is going to wipe it all away. With the incredible, loving support of Courtney, my family, friends, and even strangers along the way, I’m going to keep fighting for that bright future - and make the most of whatever life has waiting for me on the other side.

#wheretheresawill #standwithwill #cancersucks