Hello, it’s me…

Hello World!

Nice to meet you if I haven’t yet. My name is Ryan Kalmbach and I currently reside in the beautiful state of Colorado. If you hadn’t had the chance to read my About Me page, I will summarize it here for you. This blog page is inspired by a close friend of mine named Taylor Blanton. Taylor was a friend I made back in 2022 that lived in the wonderful state of Tennessee and I had the absolute honor and privilege to get to be his friend while he was here on Earth. Taylor passed away back in June, 2025 after a long battle with Heart Cancer. Today in fact would have been his 31st birthday and I guess in some sense, this is my way of processing that today.

Taylor kept a blog—it’s still online if you ever feel led to read it—and in it he poured out so much of what he was going through. His blog is https://nurseturnedpatient8.com. Some entries are hard to get through because of how vulnerable they are, but they’re honest and unfiltered. I’m glad I had the short few years to get to know Taylor. It was truly a blessing to me. Time is a thief in many ways, and it can feel that way, but I’m learning to see it differently. Time made that possible to be apart of his life. Time let me know him and time gave me a friend for this period of my life when I needed it most. Time let his friendship shape me in ways that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I decided to name this blog “Thoughts by Ryan” mainly because I have a lot of thoughts in my head and getting them out through writing helps. It helps me process my emotions, helps me feel, but most importantly reflect. Reflection to me is a key component in anyone’s life that allows for the full picture to be developed – meaning it allows for a complete 360 degree view to take place and 100% clarity to any situation in life. They do say hindsight is 20/20, but Reflection helps with that as well in my own opinion. I absolutely have no insight into how this blog post will go. I don’t know if 1 person will read it or thousands, and frankly it doesn’t matter in the big picture, but I hope these blog posts speak to you in some aspect. I hope they touch your heart and give you a glimpse into my thought process of how I live life where I am currently at 28 years of age.

Something that I live by which you will see reflected in my blogs is my faith. Faith to me is something I have to lean on when times are good, but most importantly when times are hard and tough. That is something I had connected with Taylor on – the commonality of believing in Jesus and God. So in honor of Taylor’s birthday today, I want to share his favorite bible verse: Isaiah 40:31 – “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Rest in peace my friend. I miss you. (Taylor’s Image Below)