I sold shoes to pay my way through medical school in Ukraine

I sold shoes to pay my way through medical school in Ukraine.
That is also where I saw my first ship.

I went on to become a Master Mariner, and the years of work since have carried me to Perth, Western Australia, on the other side of the world from where that story began.

Nobody plans a route like that. I had no career adviser and no one in the family at sea. I was a broke student who could not stop thinking about ships.

People sometimes ask how I went from selling shoes in a medical school to a life around ships.

The short answer is that a door opened and I walked through it.

The long answer is coming soon.