Born and raised in a small town in the mountains of Virginia where I never quite fit in.  Went to college at a private Christian university in the Midwest where the girls had curfew but the guys didn’t (Yup.).  Married my college sweetheart and lived near the beach in SC working in the Job from Hell for a few years before moving on to LA so my husband could pursue his dream of working in visual effects and I could pursue my dream of, well, I wasn’t totally sure, but I wanted it to involve a house and kids and a happy marriage.  Three years later my husband’s career was flourishing but I was still struggling to even define what I wanted and it seemed to be getting harder by the day.  In 2009, just a month after our sixth wedding anniversary my husband met me for drinks in a busy Westwood restaurant to hand me his wedding ring and tell me he was ending our marriage, and then, in the middle of the restaurant, he had me served with divorce papers.  It hurt like hell and I spent quite a few nights balled up on the floor crying, but quite the contrary to that being the end of my life, it was just the beginning.  My life with my husband had been driven by his fears and anxieties, often pertaining to money.  On my own again and taking the steering wheel as captain of my own destiny, I made the decision to start living my life based on my dreams and goals and not on my fears.  I applied to grad school and got into on of the top programs in the country for interior design.  Now, three years later, I have my master’s degree (and yes, the accompanying mountain of loan that plagues higher education).  When Plan A (go on to get my PhD in Design and Environmental Analysis – kind of like feng shui with a scientific basis), I moved on to Plan B (buy a one way ticket to Costa Rica, work on my Spanish, learn to surf, go to yoga teacher training, figure out my next step). Day by day I am discovering myself, finding my wings, and learning to fly.