Hi friends!
Thank you so much for being on this journey with me! As a small business owner, just know that every little thing you do to support me matters. Your views, comments, shares, likes, and business means the world to me! And I hope that I have supported you with beautiful photos and plenty of joy and inspiration over the years!
This is now my 4th year in business, but my 35th year in life! So in honor of celebrating my 35th birthday, I wanted to share some fun and completely random facts about me! I hope you enjoy getting to know these pieces of me, and I hope to get to know you better as well! Share something random about yourself in the comments below, on my Instagram page, or shoot me an email! I would love to get to know who you are and how I can help you in your own journey!
ONE
(Starting off with an easy one maybe)
I love color!
If you know anything about me, you probably already know this fact! Things that are a little quirky, fun, and colorful make me happy! And I love being happy, don’t you? I can certainly appreciate a beautiful neutral backdrop, as well as textures and darker/moodier art, but there’s something about clean and crisp design with a pop of color that really speaks to me! I never realized how much I enjoy color until I scrolled back through my Instagram feed after my first year in business and noticed how much color I posted! Now I’m embracing that 100%!
TWO
I also work as a registered nurse!
In addition to being a photographer, I also work per diem (a few shifts per month) as a critical care registered nurse in a neuro/trauma ICU. I’ve worked there (on and off) for 13 years now (ever since I graduated college)! I also have a master’s degree in nursing and worked at an oil refinery as a nurse practitioner. That was an interesting job, to say the least!
THREE
I’m an introvert with extroverted tendencies.
Am I making this up, or is this really a thing?? 🙂 I can (and do!) spend multiple days in a row alone in my house and very much enjoy the solitude. But I have also learned over the years that I have bursts of extroversion and really do enjoy meeting and getting to know other people, though I usually prefer smaller groups or one on one conversations so I can really dive deep into the things that matter!
FOUR
I have celiac disease and have to eat completely gluten free.
I suffered for about 12 years with random symptoms like migraines, skin rashes, iron deficiency, severe fatigue, joint pains, and narcolepsy before I finally figured out I had celiac disease. (Yes, you read that right, I was actually diagnosed with narcolepsy and had to take stimulants to stay awake!) After seeing multiple specialists for years, I finally figured out for myself that celiac disease was the culprit. I was tested and confirmed, and once I finally learned how to eat and live completely gluten free I started to feel like a normal human again! (And bonus: I don’t need to take any stimulants to stay awake!) That was 11 years ago now, and since then I’ve become quite the expert on celiac disease and living gluten free. I’ve helped many other people get diagnosed and am happy to be a resource to you if you have any questions or need support!
Thankfully living gluten free these days is much easier than it was in the past and there are plenty of gluten free options so I can indulge in one of my favorite foods: homemade Belgian waffles! 🙂
FIVE
I’ve been around the world on a ship and have visited 24 countries!
The first international trip I took was when I signed up for Semester at Sea in college and spent 100 days on a ship circumnavigating the globe. It started with us having to be rescued in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (check out the Storm Stories episode of our trip here!), but actually ended up being the trip of a lifetime! I like to think that my life as I know it today really started aboard that ship.
Since then I’ve caught the travel bug and have continued traveling and exploring whenever I can! So far my favorite trip has been to Patagonia (Argentina/Chile), but Tanzania and the Serengeti is a close second!
SIX
I am the WORST swimmer!
I have a friend who’s really into triathlons (and really good at them!), and a few years ago I agreed to sign up for one with her! We started a training program which included swimming lessons, and that’s when I found out that I can’t swim! I mean, I can stay afloat, but I have the hardest time with holding my breath and swimming real laps. Our swim instructor actually stopped the lesson and gave me a kick board to use!
The only reason that I was able to complete the olympic distance triathlon that we had signed up for was because the swim portion was in a river that you could literally stand up in. So I may have swam/walked that portion of the race! 😉
SEVEN
I wanted to elope!
Yup, when my now husband proposed I was ready to get married by ourselves in some beautiful and remote location. But Brandon wanted a more traditional wedding. After all, it was probably going to be the only time that all of our closest friends and family would meet! So we ended up having a small wedding (35 people) in the mountains and it was the best decision ever! See the full blog post about our wedding day here!
Oh, and below is our adventure dog, Spruce! He’s a quirky, cuddly, love-bug of a pup!
EIGHT
I’ve bicycled across the country (USA)
After graduating nursing school with my bachelor’s degree, I bicycled across the country with 26 other young adults and college students through a group that was called Hopkins 4K for Cancer. (At the time it was based out of Johns Hopkins University where I went to undergrad, but it’s now an independent non-profit called 4K For Cancer.) I didn’t even own a bike when I signed up! Man, those first few days were challenging (the first day was 80 miles into the Appalachian Mountains!), but 4,000 miles later I made it from Baltimore, Maryland to San Francisco, California (yes, we took the long route)! That’s where I decided to stay, and I’m still here 13 years later!
NINE
I know the number Pi out to 55 digits beyond the decimal point.
Did I mention that I’m a bit of a nerd sometimes? This is a totally random one, but the number was written across the top of my high school calculus teacher’s classroom, so after many days spent staring at it on the wall, it became engrained in my memory and I can still recite it today!
3.14159…do you know the rest?? 😉
TEN
I watch the Hallmark channel on repeat during the holidays!
Since I work from home a lot, I often prefer to keep the TV on all day or alternate between TV and music. So why not have a happy channel on in the background that gets me excited about the holidays? I’ll be honest, I don’t actually sit down and watch the movies start to finish, I just like to have them as happy background noise. And if it’s not around the holidays, a good rerun of The Office or Parks and Rec will do!
BONUS FACT
As I was writing this post I realized that I had to add one more random fact! I completely overuse exclamation points and parenthesis. (How else can I convey to you my positive energy while also making side comments?!) And you know what? I love semicolons as well! I knew it was meant to be when my now husband and I first met and he used a semicolon in his text message. 🙂
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope you learned some fun and interesting things about me! Send me a message and let me know if you can relate to anything; I would love to get to know you more!
Want to learn more about me? Check out some of my other personal blog posts here or come hang with me on Instagram!
My branding photos were taken by Janea Greene Creative at Creative Space Studios; wedding photos by Kreate Photography; travel and outdoor photos by me!
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