About Me

In February 2012, I did something that would forever change my life: I joined Peace Corps. I had just turned 22 and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. A brief study abroad trip in Rome the previous summer had taught me there was so much in the world I wanted to see.

Four months later I left Minnesota, lugging two North Face duffels and two extra-large carry-ons to DC to hop on a plane that would take me to my new home: Ethiopia. I had my linen pants, headlamp, REI sleeping bag, and hiking shoes. You know what I wished I had brought more of? Jeans.

Two years of living and working in Ethiopia taught me so much about the culture, people, landscape, food, MYSELF.

I went boating with hippos, haggled in Amharic, hiked to waterfalls, was astonished by rock-hewn churches, snacked with hyenas, avoided malaria, got evicted, helped publish four children’s books, was sexually harassed, celebrated new holidays, helped open a library, climbed through castle ruins, ran a summer camp, got depressed, celebrated weddings, hiked around a crater lake, craved oreos, and made lifelong friends.

I also met the love of my life, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, and he’s now part of my adventure!

We spent three months backpacking through Southeast Asia. We soaked up the sun in Koh Samui, celebrated the paper lantern festival in Chiang Mai, got food poisoning in Ho Chi Minh City, explored the world’s second largest cave in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, strolled with elephants in Mondulkiri, marvelled at temples in Angkor Wat, stuffed our faces at night markets in Luang Prabang, and got conjunctivitis at the Bun Awk Phansa festival.

To make a long story short, we’ve had our ups and downs. After a year in the US, reconnecting with family and friends, we made our new dream happen: International Teaching.

We spent three years living and working in Accra, Ghana and it was such an incredible place to call home. We grew more together than we ever thought possible.

We went on our first safari, became PYP classroom teachers, learned to batik, vacationed at “Ghana’s most exclusive beach resort,” coordinated a Maker Faire, went to art shows, visited a kente village, celebrated International Festival Day, had our first flight cancelled, visited a plastic-bottle school, learned how to make glass beads, reflected at former slave castles, shouted at cab drivers, realized how much more comfortable we feel living in an international community, and visited 16 new countries.

Then it was time for our new international home: Amman, Jordan. This was a fun surprise for us, because we had visited it a year earlier and left longing for more time. That wish was, unfortunately, granted by a global pandemic.

During our three years in Jordan we ate incredible food, were locked in our home, became online teachers, started working out every day, developed a hobby of rescuing stray cats, survived a sandstorm in Wadi Rum, stared at the wonders of Petra, floated in the Dead Sea, and missed traveling. But, traveling internationally was still so complicated that we decided it was time for a change.

We decided to move back to Texas. We were simultaneously uplifted and appalled. The US has changed significantly since the last time we called it home and not often for the good.

While back, we decided Birmingham is the best city in the United States, attended an Afrobeats festival, went on a Civil Rights road trip, lost all hope for the American public education system, got super into Bollywood films & music, explored the origins of blues music in Mississippi, returned to the reservation with my grandmother, ate fry bread & fell in love with sour beers, discovered an appreciation for Minor League Baseball (go Rocket City Trash Pandas!), and visited the ONLY tropical rain forest in the US National Forest System – El Yunque in Puerto Rico.

But all bad things must come to an end (#freepalestine!), so I’m happy to announce that in the summer of 2024 we’ll be moving to Dakar, Senegal to continue our journey as international educators.