My Life

I originally had the whole sordid story of my life. It was then that I realized that would be REALLY boring. I do promise, however, to offer a brief synopsis of myself shortly. My previous "My Life" page offered the whole story of my life. Pretty much from the time I was born, the brothers I acquired, and my family's information. Who wants to really know that about me anyway? Huh?

If you're really curious, though. I was born in Clinton, Iowa in 1975. Four years later, Jeremy came along. While I was glad to get him, at first, that gratitude wore thin quickly. In 1984, Nathan was born. While being the oldest child can be a good thing, I found it to be the worst position of all. Nothing is worse than supposedly "knowing better than that" when something bad happens. Even if it wasn't my fault, I should've "known better". So, for all of you out there that are oldest children, I sympathize. I don't think I was a bad sister, though. Although, what do I know?! As far as I can tell, they both were happy when I went off to college, yet both wanted me to be around a bit, so, I guess that's a good sign, right?

In 1993, I graduated from Fulton High School at the top of my class. The world was open to me, I had chosen to attend Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Yes, THE Northwestern. I found that to be a little more daunting than I was ready for. It didn't help that I was going to school full time, working a full-time work study job and, by my Sophomore year, holding down a part-time retail job as well. My freshman year was a lot of fun. I was a member of the Northwestern University Marching Band (NUMB) and really enjoyed performing with them. My sophomore year became too stressful. Classes were very hard and I couldn't find assistance anywhere I turned. My friends were either Seniors or had transferred after their freshman year, I was working too much and had too much homework. I decided to drop out and go back home.

After five months at home (5 months too many!), I started at the University of Evansville, in southern Indiana. It would have been ok, but I changed my major halfway through, was listed as a Freshman and was in a freshman dorm and had to work full-time to stay in school. I had been a Biochemistry/Pre-medicine student at Northwestern and began to follow that path when I was at UE. However, I soon found that it was impossible to be holding a full-time job and sufficiently devote myself to the necessary science. So, I decided to do a degree in Sociology, with a concentration in Anthropology.

About the time I switched majors, Chris and I started dating. It started more of a 3 hours every night on the phone and then at least an hour 'chatting' online. Ah...the days of telnet! Anyway, it got to the point that I was very lonely at UE, I wanted to be closer to him and I wanted to be in a program that was actually not Anthropology and just a concentration. So, I applied to UM, but my Northwestern grades were slightly insufficient for them. I also applied to Eastern Michigan University, who accepted me, brought me under it's wing and allowed me to graduate. I left there with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology in 1997. Unfortunately, unless you go to grad school, I haven't found a whole lot of use for that degree.

After graduation, I returned to my parent's for a bit. That didn't work out too well. I was used to being on my own, setting my own hours and living my own life. So, I returned to Ann Arbor, took a job at the University of Michigan and, as they say, the rest is history. Granted, I've had at least 4 different jobs since that one and have gone back to school for 2 different things, but still.....

Surgery seems to be something that's going to be an annual occurrence for me now. In 2001, I had my tonsils removed. This year, 2002, it was found that I had a cyst growing on my left ovary. I had surgery on February 27 to remove said cyst, which ended up being the size of a regulation football. Quite a bit larger than they expected! After tests were done, on the cyst, I was diagnosed as Stage IA ovarian cancer. For the time being, that means I have to go in for regular checkups, get CT scans, blood work and x-rays every 3 months and keep my fingers crossed that nothing worse will develop.

Through both of these surgeries,Chris has been by my side, helping me out as best he can. Most importantly, he has shown me how much he loves me. He has stayed by my side through all of that, helped me heal, and offered me the greatest support one could ask for.