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Wow, the last 10 years have flown by! After SMC, I travelled in Europe with my friend Joe Nakashima. We hit 14 countries in just under 4 months, staying in hostels and with host families. It was awesome!
Then, I came home, worked for a year, and attended The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan. It was a concentrated musical theatre program, so all of my classes were acting, singing and dancing. Just what the doctor ordered! Living in NYC was an amazing time where I learned and experienced a lot (including September 11th).
After graduating, I decided that I was ready to leave NYC and explore some more. I got a job with the Missoula Children's Theatre out of Missoula, Montana. I was hired for a tour position, so over the next 2 years, I travelled through 11 states and 2 European countries teaching local kids for a week. They then performed original musicals for their communities. I spent my first year with 1 tour partner (the whole time!) and we became such great friends that we were even in each other's weddings.
After these tours were over, I wasn't sure where to go next (big surprise), so I chose California. I wanted to learn to surf, and the west coast sounded cool. As God would work it out, it turned out that I had a friend from school in New York whose family lived near my new destination, San Luis Obispo, CA. So, he offered to fly to WI to help me make the drive out west. We stayed with a bunch of my Missoula host families along the way, and when we arrived at the west coast, I already loved it. I learned to surf my second day there, and got a job about 3 months later! I worked for a large gymnastics training center for about 4 years, then got a great job with my church. I had been volunteering for the high school youth group for a few years when they asked me to run a brand new youth complex. It was great.
When you move away to a place where you literally know no one, you get a knack for meeting new people. About 2 or 3 years into my CA life, I met my (future) husband, Matt. Some of my roommates were friends with some of his, so we started seeing each other here and there. We definitely did not click in the beginning though. And, as it would turn out, I ended up having a crush on his roommate and he had a crush on mine...so we always ended up hanging out together trying to hang out with each other's roomies! The rest is history. We were engaged after 10 months of dating, and we've been married just over 2 years now.
After he graduated from Cal Poly, we lived for a short time near Pismo Beach, CA. Then we were given the option to move down to San Diego or out to Denver. Neither of us was interested in southern CA, so we picked Denver. We've been in CO now for almost 2 years, and we're loving it. We are about 50 miles north of Denver, and it is beautiful out here!
Matt works for a general contractor, doing mostly government projects. We also own an Amway Global business. And we're expecting our first child this July!
As everyone may have guessed, we don't know if CO is where we'll stay (there's just so much more out there!), but we love it for now. If anyone's ever out snowboarding, feel free to call me up! I'd love to see anyone!!!
