I grew up in Tampa, FL and lived 13 years of my life on a street where six of the eight houses belonged to members of my extended family. Consequently, I find it strange when other people do not know the names of their third cousins. I’ve come to realize that my family is unusually connected, and it has developed within me deep notions about the meaning and responsibilities of family. Sometimes that’s a blessing, sometimes it feels more like handcuffs.

I was an absolute tomboy until the end of middle school/beginning of high school. You can thank my older brother and four male cousins who lived on our street for that. My mother tried to introduce me to ballet when I was four, but after one recital I was back in cleats and t-shirts. For the rest of my life, playing sports was always a major part of who I was. I played on volleyball, basketball and softball teams throughout high-school and played intramural sports during college. Even now I can’t go more than a couple of weeks without doing something competitive. I recently started playing golf, and you can read about that train wreck here. And, like most guys, I plan my fall weekends around college football.    

In 2007 I graduated from Florida State University (the only option for higher education in my mind after years of brainwashing from my older brother) with a bachelors degree in Exercise Science and a minor in English. The short version of the college story is that I started as an English major, changed majors 3/4 of the way through when the slim prospects of having an English degree became a reality, and graduated with a degree I wasn’t very excited about. I moved home to Tampa after graduating and found a job in the health and fitness field while waiting (a bit impatiently) to get engaged and start the next phase of life. 

The best part about FSU was that it brought me my college sweetheart turned husband, Clayton. Clayton and I started dating the summer before our sophomore year and have been together ever since. We got married on May 9, 2008 in Palm Harbor, FL. Clayton is my best friend and no matter how restless I get with the details, I know that my life’s pretty good if he’s a part of it. We were living in Tampa while he finished Physician Assistant school. He graduated in December of 2009 and have since followed our dreams of moving somewhere where you can’t wear shorts in December. We officially moved to Newport News, Virginia on January 22, 2010. The city welcomed us with 10 inches of snow a week after we arrived; it was the third largest snow ever in the area. It’s the greatest adventure we’ve ever gone on together, and much of my writing in the near future will be about coping with leaving my family in order to pursue a dream with the love of my life.   

Clayton and I added to our family last year by adopting a puppy from the Tampa Humane Society. You can read about Bryson Noa here, here, and here. It’s our first step toward parenthood, and I’m a bit wary of not being able to put a baby in a crate for 6 hours a day. So, for now, it’s just the three of us.

After just two years out of college, I realized I couldn’t commit the rest of my life to a career I wasn’t passionate about. So, this summer I returned to the undergraduate universe in pursuit of  my abandoned bachelors degree in English. I started taking classes at the University of South Florida and should graduate in August 2010. Hopefully, the day after I get that degree, companies will be lined up waiting to pay me to write for them. That’s the plan, at least. And I’m prepared to write about it every step of the way.