Exploring what it means to call the Pacific Northwest home.
The stories and profiles are inspired by the lives, landscapes, and experiences that comprise the region. Rather than covering the news, upcoming events and openings, the essays and features here are longer narrative approaches focused on allowing what it means to call a place home to unfold slowly, deeply, and over time.
The stories and profiles are inspired by the lives, landscapes, and experiences that comprise the region. Rather than covering the news, upcoming events and openings, or the issues (many other publications already do this and do it well), the essays and features here are longer narrative approaches focused on allowing what it means to call a place home to unfold slowly, deeply, and over time.
The name is a nod to the region’s two biggest cities as well as an ode to the transplants (the roses that were brought to Portland in the 1800s) and the natives and locals (the evergreen trees whose roots expand across the region’s history). Rather than being confined to Portland and Seattle, the publication—much like the cities themselves for many—is a launching point to explore all things urban and beyond in the Pacific Northwest.
The name is a nod to the region’s two biggest cities as well as an ode to the transplants (the roses that were brought to Portland in the 1800s) and the natives and locals (the evergreen trees whose roots expand across the region’s history). Rather than being confined to Portland and Seattle, the publication—much like the cities themselves for many—is a launching point to explore all things urban and beyond in the Pacific Northwest.
Origins of Rose&Emerald
For two years during the pandemic, I lived on the road, driving nearly 70,000 miles across North America in an attempt to visit as many National Parks as possible as well as to figure out where along this great expanse of a continent I wanted to call home. In September 2022, I officially became an Oregonian.
In addition to having family nearby, I was drawn to the variety that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. The culture and bustle of the city and the solitude and fresh air of the forest. The mixture of dark blue ocean, snow-capped mountains, towering trees, cascading waterfalls, rolling hills, and expansive plains and desert. It was how different everything was from what I grew up knowing in Florida but how quickly I felt at home among it—even the gray, rainy winter that so many people warned me about.
But I wanted to bring with me what I loved most about living on the road— learning about new plants, exploring new places, and meeting new people, such as: the strangers who first helped me learn to back up a 27-foot trailer in Indiana; the couple with polar opposite political views from my own who I shared beers and conversation with over a fire in Pennsylvania; the mechanics, school teachers, and police officers who offered me help and hospitality during a record snowstorm in Texas; the college students I taught how to make a fire one cold night in the Grand Canyon; and the young family from Washington I met conducting art class atop Delicate Arch in Utah.
Much of the time, the conversations revolved around living on the road: What was the impetus for doing it? What do you love about it? What do you hate?
While driving a small U-Haul with all of my belongings from Florida on the final stretch of I-84 along the Columbia River Gorge, I began wondering how I would keep those conversations going—and what it means to call a place home. I wanted to remain curious to learning what’s unique about this place rather than merely how it’s different from Florida and all the other places I’ve been. What are the stories you learn growing up here? Who are the people making it better? What is the history erased and remembered? But more importantly, what is it that natives, locals, and transplants love about living here?
Rose&Emerald is my attempt to do just that. It’s equal parts education, love story, and exploration of a region that has become my chosen home.
For two years during the pandemic, I lived on the road, driving nearly 70,000 miles across North America in an attempt to visit as many National Parks as possible as well as to figure out where along this great expanse of a continent I wanted to call home. In September 2022, I officially became an Oregonian.
In addition to having family nearby, I was drawn to the variety that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. The culture and bustle of the city and the solitude and fresh air of the forest. The mixture of dark blue ocean, snow-capped mountains, towering trees, cascading waterfalls, rolling hills, and expansive plains and desert. It was how different everything was from what I grew up knowing in Florida but how quickly I felt at home among it—even the gray, rainy winter that so many people warned me about.
But I wanted to bring with me what I loved most about living on the road— learning about new plants, exploring new places, and meeting new people, such as: the strangers who first helped me learn to back up a 27-foot trailer in Indiana; the couple with polar opposite political views from my own who I shared beers and conversation with over a fire in Pennsylvania; the mechanics, school teachers, and police officers who offered me help and hospitality during a record snowstorm in Texas; the college students I taught how to make a fire one cold night in the Grand Canyon; and the young family from Washington I met conducting art class atop Delicate Arch in Utah.
Much of the time, the conversations revolved around living on the road: What was the impetus for doing it? What do you love about it? What do you hate?
While driving a small U-Haul with all of my belongings from Florida on the final stretch of I-84 along the Columbia River Gorge, I began wondering how I would keep those conversations going—and what it means to call a place home. I wanted to remain curious to learning what’s unique about this place rather than merely how it’s different from Florida and all the other places I’ve been. What are the stories you learn growing up here? Who are the people making it better? What is the history erased and remembered? But more importantly, what is it that natives, locals, and transplants love about living here?
Rose&Emerald is my attempt to do just that. It’s equal parts education, love story, and exploration of a region that has become my chosen home.
About Me
Hi, I’m Laura. I was born and raised in Orlando, Florida, a place I finally learned to love just as I decided I was going to leave it. I now live in Portland, Oregon, with my partner, John, and our pup, Vanderlyle the Great.
I’d describe myself as a lifelong learner, a practice that really began at my alma mater, Rollins College, a place that launched my nearly 20-year career in higher education as an editor, writer, and content strategist. I now consult on those things in addition to writing for and editing magazines on a freelance basis. And I still love to learn, which I do by reading, traveling, journaling, writing, meeting new people, taking photos—and working on this publication.
Hi, I’m Laura. I was born and raised in Orlando, Florida, a place I finally learned to love just as I decided I was going to leave it. I now live in Portland, Oregon, with my partner, John, and our pup, Vanderlyle the Great.
I’d describe myself as a lifelong learner, a practice that really began at my alma mater, Rollins College, a place that launched my nearly 20-year career in higher education as an editor, writer, and content strategist. I now consult on those things in addition to writing for and editing magazines on a freelance basis. And I still love to learn, which I do by reading, traveling, journaling, writing, meeting new people, taking photos—and working on this publication.
