Building a Life

The convoluted designs on the spines of his banjos were hidden at first glance while the instruments sat on there stand, but even in the dark attic room that was converted into his sanctuary years ago, the pieces came to life as he picked up his wooded craft and played a lick.

Tom Ryan remembers a piece of his childhood when he would play his guitar for his cousins during their family gatherings every Sunday at their grandpa’s house, back when he lived in Bogota, Colombia. He spent years building and perfecting his craft as a musician.

Living a top the Bogotá savanna plateau that has formed itself around the eastern side of Andes Mountains, the city of Santa Fe de Bogota, Colombia, is home to about 7 million people. Tom was 15 when he and his family decided to leave Colombia’s corruption and drug war behind and make way for the United States of America. This move set a trend for Tom’s life that wouldn’t end until the 1980s after he found his home, in the small town of Helen, Georgia where he would he called it quits on the nomadic lifestyle he had formerly known but he never stopped building.

When arriving in the United States, Tom no longer had to keep change in his shoes to pay off the corrupt law enforcement officers on the street. Bribery was a way of life for the folks back then in Colombia and it had become almost a necessity for survival there. This life was different than the one he left behind. For him, the opportunities here were endless.

“You know people always say that the American dream is dead now. Well that’s bullshit. People come to the United States for opportunity. - In Colombia, if you were born poor and shoeless, you would die poor and shoeless,” Tom said.

There was one thing that stayed constant for Tom, despite all the moving and travelling. His passion for the environment around him and his desire to learn always played a hand in what he did. Bouncing from town to town and through different states in and out of the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest every couple of years, eventually he ended up in the state of Washington near Seattle, where he found a living by fishing for salmon and logging trees. He moved into an apartment there where he met his neighbor, who found an old banjo lying in the closet and would pick at that thing throughout the night. Tom expressed his interest in the treasure, and his neighbor gave it to him. That was the first time that he ever picked up a banjo and that was his intro.

The music was the tone for him and remained that way throughout his life. Tom spent the 1970s decade, like any other gypsy soul would, on the road. Carter was President, gas lines wrapped around the block, but Tom says he didn’t care. Every town had a disco club, he met a woman and that’s the way (uh huh, uh huh) he liked it. Tom and his disco queen decided to get married in the late 1970s and she joined him in Seattle but only for a couple of months. Just shy of their wedding, Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington and destroyed all of Tom’s livelihood. The salmon were killed, the logging business moved solely to the affected area. Like gypsies do, they hit the road.

“In those days the economy was terrible. We bounced around the country getting jobs here and there. We made it from California, to Wyoming where I worked on an oil rig, then to Montana. We were just gypsies, I mean back then it was like tough times, ya know?” Tom said.

The road became long for Tom and his wife, Sheri. They heard from some family members that a small town settled deep in the north Georgia mountains was on the rise, and the business for construction was booming. Tom and Sheri narrowed their views and headed for small town Helen, Georgia. When they arrived, they immediately knew this was their forever home.

The journey there began with a desire to remain wild. Tom enrolled at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia to pursue a degree in chemistry and biology. He hoped for an immersion into the wilderness that would allow him to build a lasting difference for the world around him. He earned his degree and within a few short years found himself in Florida working as a biologist. The job was a bit too political for Tom, and after two years he decided to move back to the place where he felt most at home.

The man who was gifted a banjo that was found inside of an old closet, had now become quite the skilled musician. During his 30s, Tom was a part of the band called the Georgia Mudcats. His role as the lead banjo player elevated the group’s intent for an Appalachian twang to their music. Eventually his talents earned him the Georgia State Champion, twice. His highly skilled craft with string instruments did not go unnoticed. People began asking him to teach students who were willing to learn. He started building a community around his passions.

Teaching and counseling students became part of Tom’s job when he started working for an outdoor therapy program that was funded by the state. This program allowed teenage boys who were in and out of juvenile trouble to escape their demons and start fresh in the wilderness, with help from mentors and guides.

“I think the whole idea was to show these young men that there was a different way of living. That was the thing you know; you don’t have to live like that. We took them out of their environment and put them in a new environment, in which we had all the control and then we say okay, let’s start figuring out a new way to do things,” Tom said.

The wilderness was always a trivial factor Tom’s life, and he expresses his joy from having the opportunity to work with kids and teens who needed a new start, by showing him around the basics of their environment. This wasn’t a gig, like the rest of the work he had in his past. This challenge made him look deep into himself and contemplate what life was to him. Canoeing rivers for days at time with these with 15 and 16-year-old boys, Tom remembers the utterance of fear that would shoot through their bodies when they first experienced the complete darkness of the wilderness.

He said, “You know, you’ve got to think, a city kid never sees complete darkness.”

He explains through stories and behaviors of these young men, that he had to face their demons and their past with them and help them to move forward from those things. That type of leadership moved him and helped him build his character.

“It taught me a lot about myself. There was just so many things that you had to know how you felt about, because you saw things. One of the big things it taught me was, dealing with the truth,” Tom said.