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Well, the short of it is after high school, I briefly attended Evangel University, before I dropped out after a few months and decided to take a year off school instead. I then attended SMSU (now just MSU) with intent to major in elementary education, and completed my freshman year, but ran into financial problems in my sophomore year and couldn't continue. So yes, I never finished college and never became a teacher, both of which I regret, but everything I did led to my life now, which I love, so I wouldn't change a thing.
I went through a few jobs before I landed a job with Hotels.com/Expedia.com in Springfield in 2002. It gave me the awesome opportunity to be sent places I'd never thought I'd go, such as India and the Philippines. I left there in 2011 and bounced around to a few odd jobs here and there before finally ending up where I am now, working with the International Association of Fairs & Expositions. It's quite possibly the best job I've ever had, with great co-workers, great bosses, plus a yearly trip to different big cities around the country, expenses paid, for our annual convention. :)
The second-biggest highlight of my life came in June of 2013 when I met Emmy, the woman who would become my wife. It's a story you think you'd only see in movies -- my debit card had been hacked by someone and I had to go to the bank to get it cleared up. This beautiful bank lady was helping me; we got to chatting while waiting for things to get fixed and found out some things we had in common. I didn't think anything of it at first ... and I certainly didn't expect later that day to get a Facebook friend request from her! It all steamrolled from there, and by February 2014 we were engaged, and then married in September 2014. I also picked up a cool stepson, Donovan, along the way!
The best thing to happen to me, though, was the birth of our son, Fox, in May 2019. My wife and I struggled for years to get pregnant, and I was not hopeful that we would ever be successful. But by the grace of God, He finally blessed us with our happy, healthy baby boy. It's certainly a challenging adventure raising a teenager and a baby at the same time (14 years difference between the two), but I wouldn't trade it for the world, and we live a cozy, comfortable life now in Nixa, MO.
