Dots Across a Page

The ocean has always been there for me.

When I had nothing, it gave me work.

When I didn’t feel like I belonged, it gave me a home.

When I couldn’t stand my own thoughts, it gave me solace.

But in return, what had I given it?

Hello and welcome.

My name is Thor Leighton Belle. I am a brother to a Sister, and a son to a Mother. They are both two of the strongest people I know. Without them, I would not be where I am today.

As a family we moved around a lot—chasing fish and fleeting opportunity. I lived the longest in South Bristol, a small fishing town on the coast of Maine. The Lands and Water there are the ancestral home to the Walinakiak (People of the Bays) Abenaki Tribe. I had a grand total of six kids in my eighth-grade class.

Throughout it all I also had the Ocean. I earned my undergrad degree in Fisheries Biology but was surprised and alienated by a lack of accounting for people in fisheries management. For family reasons, money concerns ruled my life post undergrad. I fished, I logged, I fixed—engines, boats, houses, cars, heavy equipment, anything that paid well. I became a captain at 26 and delivered boats for people who didn’t always appreciate them. I was lucky to look like I belonged.

In 2018, after making the final payment on my mother’s divorce I was desperate to get back to the things I loved. In 2019 a friend and I rowed halfway to Alaska as part of a storytelling project. This trip awakened me to the possibilities of storytelling for connecting people across different backgrounds and values. I came back to school to find the words for how I feel and to make a conscious difference in the systems I care deeply for.