I was born in Ohio. My family moved to Georgia in the seventies so my father could work for the University of Georgia. There, I continued my interest in soccer where I played on school teams, club teams, and the state select team during high school. It was also the time I discovered my love of languages. I studied Latin and Spanish. My high school Spanish teacher is the reason I became a language teacher. After high school, I attended The University of the South, commonly known as "Sewanee." I played on the soccer team, majored in Spanish, and studied abroad in Valencia, Spain. I also studied French and Italian in college. After college, I studied Japanese at the University of Georgia and decided to get an M.Ed. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). It wasn't long after that, I moved to Madison, Alabama. While working for Madison County and Madison City schools I have raised three wonderful boys who came up through the Madison City Schools. My educational journey did not end with my M.Ed.; I earned my Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in TESOL from UAB in 2014. Education is important to me; both of my parents were educators. I don't think we should ever stop learning.