Who is Raphael?

A fair question. I'm still figuring that out myself, but here's what I know so far.

I grew up bouncing between interests—spending high school deep in AP exams (not for college apps, but because I genuinely wanted to learn about the world), singing in choir, and composing choral music. The choir program at my school was incredible, though it was heavily show choir–focused, which meant a lot of dancing. I was absolutely terrible at the dancing part, but I stuck with it anyway for the love of the music. Around the same time, I picked up a passion for aviation and travel that would end up shaping a lot of who I am today.

Eventually, I landed at the University of Chicago as a President's Scholar. My first quarter was a blast—maybe a bit more fun than studying, but that's what freedom feels like, right? I made friends, discovered new passions, and somewhere along the way, one of my favorite hobbies emerged: flight simulation.

I built a fully fledged simulator setup with a real yoke and thrust column, and started taking to the virtual skies in Microsoft Flight Simulator. But it wasn't just about flying—I became obsessed with the procedural aspects. ATC communications, ground operations, proper checklist usage, nailing an ILS approach in low visibility. There's something incredibly satisfying about the precision required, the constant situational awareness, and the way all these complex systems work together. It's like conducting an orchestra, except you're the only musician and the consequences of missing a note are... higher.

After my first year, I took some time off from school to figure things out. I ended up traveling extensively—visiting 24 countries across all six inhabited continents in 2023 alone. From bustling cities to remote landscapes, I got to experience an incredible range of cultures, perspectives, and ways of living. It was transformative in ways I'm still processing, and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

When I came back to school, I discovered what might be my greatest obsession yet: Linux. Something about orchestrating systems just clicks with me in a way nothing else ever has. The control, the elegance of a well-configured system, the satisfaction of making disparate services work together seamlessly—it all resonates with the same part of me that loves flight procedures and choral composition.

I went all in. Ditched my iPhone, MacBook, and Windows desktop—everything for Linux—and I have absolutely no regrets. I now spend my time (often at 4 a.m., let's be honest) setting up Docker Compose stacks, maintaining this website, logging flights, and building out a growing constellation of self-hosted services distributed across servers around the country. Each one is a small piece of infrastructure I get to design, deploy, and refine.

Composition has mostly fallen by the wayside despite a few heartfelt attempts to revive it, but the creative problem-solving it taught me shows up in how I approach systems design. Everything connects, somehow.

And now I'm here. About to graduate with no clear idea what's next. Work for an airline? Pursue systems administration? Try to find something that combines both worlds? Honestly, I don't know yet—and that's okay. Life rarely gives you the full configuration file upfront. The only way forward is to test, deploy, and iterate.

continuandum est