1980-1983: I was born in Detroit. I remember none of it.
1983-1997: I was raised in a falling down limestone house nestled in between a forest and a cattle pen. Childhood was singing Cyndi Lauper songs while standing atop a rusted Chevy truck, watching my mother turn pots on a wheel, swimming in the shallow muddy river, helping my father get firewood, picking off ticks, reading piles of books, eating blueberry pie at auctions, and going on family vacation in our VW van. My mother died when I was eight. My father and stepmother met when I was thirteen.
1998-2000: At seventeen, I dropped out of high school and ran away with my friends. We only made it 80 miles, to the nearest interesting town. We had many adventures together, and we were all very lucky that we didn’t end up in jail. I worked 60+ hours a week as a cook and got an armful of grease burns before I decided to get my GED and consider going to college.
2000-2004: I attended the University of Kansas and got a BA in English. I existed on the periphery of campus and never joined a single club or organization. College was delivering pizzas in a Ford Tempo with no muffler, reading textbooks while fishing for crappie, wearing the same overalls five days a week, and waking every morning to the sound of my neighbor singing “Wheel In the Sky”.
2004-2008: When I graduated, I was very much in debt and unqualified for any sort of job, so I stayed in the English Department and got another degree – an MFA in Fiction. What started as a cowardly, half-assed plan ended up being an excellent decision. I wrote hundreds of pages and read thousands. I learned to teach, to read, and to speak in public. I acquired nearly every skill I use today in this span of years. Toward the end of graduate school I got a writing internship that became my full time job.
2008-2011: I worked for a giant corporation writing technical manuals. For the first time in my life, I had money! And health insurance! I learned a lot about technology, became very good at finding information, and spent three comfortable years being bored to tears while dragging in a middle class salary. Then I was laid off. I don’t regret this at all.
Today: My husband and I live in an old yellow house with two dogs, four computers, and one little kid. We own a business and teach courses on the side. Life is good.
