Beyond the Resume

Growing up I was jokingly referred to as a pint-sized McGyver (minus the near-death experiences and explosions). Solutions have always been a priority - my cousin's broken bathing suit fixed with a hairband, a classmate having a hard time remembering a biology lesson remedied with a fun jingle to make it stick, or making a basket for my bike using a handful of bungees and scraps of fabric so items wouldn't slip through the milk crate. 

Dance has always been at the center of my world and I carry the tenets I learned from it with me in all forms of life. My dance career started when I was just a child, bouncing around in a tutu, and led to me competing in The Open Swing Dance Championships. Dance was not only a form of self-expression, but between learning combinations during a routine or improvising the next move with nothing but the push and pull of my dance partner, I learned about patterns and flexibility. Missteps could be disguised as a syncopated interpretation of the beat or a dramatic pause for excitement - which taught me not to be afraid of trying something new or finding opportunity in a hiccup. It taught silent communication skills that are incognito to the untrained eye but carry the weight of a well-phrased monologue. It wasn't until I was older that I was recruited into a professional swing dancing group in Orange County, where we performed lindy hop with jaw-dropping aerials.

Dance routines weren’t the only things that sent me airborne,  I was lucky enough to take to the skies on my own. In a Piper Cherokee, I took flight, learning VFR, emergency landings, finessing my S-turns and communicating with air traffic control. It taught me to keep calm under pressure, multi-task, and communicate clearly and concisely, especially when the air waves were cluttered with other aircraft.

Now I live in Northern California with my little family where you'll find us walking our 2 beloved dogs, Maisy and Violet, dancing in the kitchen, tending to my small garden, working on a new sewing project, or making sourdough bagels with Doughmingo (my 2 year old sourdough starter).