I grew up traveling, finding myself in a new state and a new school every couple years. These travels surrounded me with ever changing attitudes, opinions, perspectives, and world views. As a child, I developed an understanding of diversity that only comes with experience. As an adult, I find the innocence and open attitudes of my youth do not come so easily. I cherish this essence of youth, as it plays a critical role in shaping my ever-developing world views.

Most of my youth was spent between Washington State and Iowa. The heartland of Iowa is where I will always call home, though the luring mountains of independence and coastal crossroads brought me back to the Northwest for my education at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Now I have a second home. Eugene, Oregon is a wonderous and unique city; an hour from mountain or sea, nowhere else on Earth will one find such a crossroads of independent thought, idealism, and irony. A mixture both genius and explosive.

Though I could have spent many more years in Eugene, my fiancé and I found ourselves at a time of mobility and flexibility, once again feeling the desire of independence and change. Hence, as we approached the year of our union, we were ready to journey to where the breeze felt freshest, drawing us toward the future's open hands. The new year 2006 held our new direction, bringing us back home to Iowa.