My story begins years ago in the blistering heat of an Arizona winter. Not long afterwards, my family moved to a small town in Kansas to be closer to my dad's side of the family while he went through bootcamp. We were quickly moved to a base in south Georgia where we lived for a few years. Eventually, my father realized that being out to sea for months at a time was diminishing his relationship with my siblings and I at our young ages. Having grown tired of the humid Georgian summers we thought we would give the freezing winters of Wisconsin a chance. We quickly regretted that decision. It was during our time in Wisconsin that my mother was diagnosed with Colon Cancer at the age of 30. For those who don't know, this form of cancerI is very uncommon in people under the age of 50. She was the youngest they'd ever seen. She made a full recovery and is now over 10 cancer-free. I was 11 when I moved for the fourth time to be closer to my mom's family. The bad news, we decided to move and sell our house shortly before the housing market crashed in 2008. Eventually, we had to let go of it and let the bank take it back instead of waiting for someone to buy from us. Arizona didn't work out for very long and we finally settled down in Kansas after 6 months of living in the desert. I've lived in this state for about 10 years now, the longest I've ever lived in one place.
If you didn't think I was busy enough with a full load of courses and 2 jobs, also manage to squeeze in a few hobbies to boot.
While most people may thnk running double digit miles as a new form of torture, I do it at least once a week. I've managed to find an almost meditative joy from running long distances and am currently training for my second half-marathon. My goal for this May is to complete the race in under 2 hours and 15 minutes.
My family has been moving and driving long distances since I was very young. Driving around and seeing new places has inspired my love of travelling to new places. I've been lucky enough to visit London, Sweden, and Japan with Dublin being next on my list. My favorite thing to do is to take a weekend afternoon and explore areas of a city (new or old) to find what I haven't found before. My next trip is to Dublin, Ireland for the St. Patrick's Day celebration.