The History of Me...

So I realized that there's a lot about me that people reading this might not know. So here's a little bio on me. I was born and raised in Peoria, IL. I lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil for 9 1/2 months when I was five. It was awesome. I spoke Portugese fluently when I lived there but sadly remember none of it now. Every year my family went on vacation to Bull Shoals Lake in Missouri. I graduated from St. Thomas grade school in 1993 where I participated in the annual play and played soccer, volleyball and somehow survived half a basketball season as a cheerleader. In January of '93 my grandpa passed away and this left a very dark spot in my life. I still visit his grave every time I go home and miss him dearly. After grade school I attended Peoria Notre Dame high school where I graduated in 1997. While there I was involved in band (not by choice and I quit senior year), City Force 2000, Physical Therapy Explorers, French Club, National Honor Society and TEC (Teens Encounter Christ). I also worked several jobs including being an usher at the Peoria Civic Center, a waitress at Maid Rite, a file clerk at Illinois Eye Center and an assistant for an Insurance Salesman. I never had less than 2 jobs at any given time. After high school I went to the University of Evansville to major in Physical Therapy but changed my major to Athletic Training at the end of my freshman year. I enjoyed college but still wish I had gotten a little more out of it. I was involved with Habitat for Humanity for a little while and did a lot of volunteering freshman year. I was even named Volunteer of the Year. Sophomore year I joined the Phi Mu sorority where I met some amazing women. Sophomore thru Senior year I was a student athletic trainer and I worked at Texas Roadhouse from April of junior year til I graduated. It was definitely one of the best jobs I ever had. I went to our England campus for a 5 week session the summer before I graduated and visited several amazing places including London, Paris, Amsterdam and several other cities in England. After graduating in 2001 I took a year off before grad school where I was a substitute teacher. I then went to grad school at Ohio University and got my master's degree in athletic training. After grad school I moved to Connecticut where I lived for a year and worked in a clinic/high school and then moved to New Hampshire where I did an athletic training fellowship for a year. When that ended in July 2005 I decided I wanted to be closer to home and moved to Cincinnati. I started working for Cincinnati Sportsmedicine about 2 weeks after I moved and have been there since. I worked for my first 3 years as an athletic trainer in the clinic and a high school and then took a supervisor position to have a more set schedule. In March I met Glenn and my life has only gotten better. He bought a house in June and we are living together and working on the house. I'll write more about him in another blog. For now it's time to get ready to go to Oktoberfest Zinzinnati!!!