About

I was born in Las Vegas, NV, but never called it home for more than a year at a time. Washington State has been more of a home as I have lived here for the past 17 years. I grew up as a military brat, moving from state to state every few years. Some people are naturally more social and adapt quickly in new surroundings. I am not one of those people. It seemed that just as soon as I got comfortable somewhere and formed relationships, my family would pick up and move again. We finally settled down in Seattle because my dad retired from the Navy and became a deputy with the King County Sheriff’s Office. That was just before my senior year of high school.

I was determined to follow in my dad’s footsteps and join the military. I participated in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) from my freshman to junior years in high school. Unfortunately, JROTC is not as common in Seattle, so there was not a high school close enough to my parent’s home for me to continue into my senior year. This was inconvenient because I had hoped to get into a military academy and become an officer. My grades were not poor, but far from reflective of what I could achieve. Therefore, in my nearsightedness I was quick to fall for the promises of an Army recruiter with a loose understanding of the word integrity.

After wasting three weeks of my life in muggy Missouri trying to attend boot camp, I returned home and tried to decide what to do with my life. With the gentle nudging of my parents, I started attending Edmonds Community College in 2001 while working part-time as a Pizza Hut delivery driver. I had no clue what I wanted to do and so I took classes towards a general transfer degree. My mathematical skills and an Intro to Accounting class steered my focus towards an associate’s degree in accounting instead. This focus was interrupted by the best mistake I have ever made: my daughter Kaili.

A promotion to Assistant Manager, a new daughter, and attending college full time was more than I could juggle and I ended up dropping out of school. I was responsible for the well-being of two people now, so I started looking for a more secure job that offered medical benefits. After a couple odd jobs, I landed at AT&T Mobility as a customer care representative. I quickly worked up to their technical support team and then Team Manager. Foreseeing potential issues with their Cingular/AT&T merger, I went to Comcast, starting over again on the phones in customer support.

My career took a different path this time around though. Comcast sends their customer support representatives on a ride-along with a field technician as part of their extended training. After a day in the field, I knew where I wanted to be. I began applying and started my training as a field technician within six months. I worked my way up to a network technician, repairing the main fiber and coaxial cable that feeds Snohomish County. After six years, I was let go, which brought me to this point in my life.

I have always been good with my hands, but my technical skills do not end there. I mastered the software used daily at Comcast and AT&T, so I was frequently called upon as a subject matter expert, even taking over a portion of the technical support training at AT&T before I left. Therefore, when I started researching the degrees offered as part of the worker-retraining program, the Web Application Developer degree seemed like the perfect choice. Indeed it was, because this is not just a new career for me, but also a passion. I have spent the last year trying to absorb as much information as possible about web development, software, and mobile app development. So my journey continues.