I was born on August 8, 1996 in Baltimore, MD along with my three other siblings, Sarah, Joshua and Caleb. Yes, I am a quadruplet! We moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico when we were under a year to be closer to family. I spent my childhood there and learned piano, loved to sing and did ballet, gymnastics and drill team at different points growing up. After my parents split in middle school we decided to move to Austin, Texas with my mom. We went to Regents School of Austin for high school, frequently visiting my dad in Albuquerque. I was involved in volleyball, theatre, and voice lessons there, but for a variety of family reasons, we all decided to drop out and get our GED's after our Junior year. We enrolled at Austin Community College in place of our Senior year and got some general ed credits done.
I applied to transfer into the University of Texas at Austin, and deferred my enrollment for a year to do a gap year program in California. Those plans fell through, and I ended up back in Austin, so I decided to use the rest of the gap year to go to beauty school. I went to Avenue Five Institute and was trained in Esthetics. After I got my Texas license I found a part-time job as a skin therapist at Ulta and enrolled in UT. I spent three years at UT studying psychology and minoring in Latin while working as an esthetician part-time throughout most of it. I was involved in the Mu Epsilon Theta Sorority and became Treasurer my Senior year. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in May 2018.
Because of a credit issue I had to retake a class at ACC and wasn't officially issued my diploma until 2020. In the meantime, I worked full-time as an esthetican at a variety of different places in Austin over the next few years. I got involved in music in Austin, joining cover bands, writing songs and performing live at showcases or open mics. In October of 2020, I got in a terrible car accident where I fractured 12 bones and had a TBI, which entirely halted my life and I spent the majority of the next year recovering, relearning how to walk, regaining range of motion etc. It was a trying time where I spent a lot of time in introspection and analyzing who I really wanted to be and the ways I wanted to live differently after such a near-death experience, resolving to take nothing for granted. I studied for and took the GED while i was recovering, because I was still considering going to grad school. I eventually was able to drive again, went back to work at my previous esthetician job and was able to be involved in my hobbies again.
Two of my siblings moved to Denver, CO in July of 2022, and my other brother had moved away several years before. In the fall I lost my esthetician job and was reconsidering what I really wanted to do for my career in the future. I wasn't entirely convinced about grad school because of the enormous initial investment and time commitment to get nto a career with not a whole lot of external payoff. My brother, Josh, who works in the fintech industry suggested a coding/software engineering path. He thought with my affinity for languages and success learning Latin, along with some of the creative aspects and my strong academic skills that it could be a really great option for me. I started looking into it, practicing on Codeacademy, and researching bootcamps. When I found Flatiron School it became my top choice and I applied, was accepted and even awarded the Women in Tech scholarship. I am excited to start the program and learn all there is to know about Software Engineering. I hope it opens many future career doors as a programmer!