It all began in High School, although I as the story took a break for a while and resumed about four or five years ago so I will spare some details. For 25 years I have wanted to help kids no one else is helping. The subsequent years have been trying to figure out what that would look like as I love business, education, the outdoors, creativity and animals. In 2004 I was working with Habitat for Humanity International and living in the Dominican Republic and struggling with figuring out what I really wanted to do with my life.
Dominican Republic, a diverse and beautiful country
I kept thinking about something Donald Trump had said (no not 'location, location, location - that came later) "do what you are passionate about and you will be successful". Since I wasn't sure what I was really passionate about I tied to think of dreams that hadn't every gone away. I used to want to be the first female professional American Football player and the first female professional baseball player (because I love all sports). I let go of those in college. There were other dreams along the way and they faded with time. One has stayed with me and that is to help kids no one else is helping using business and education.
As I talked about this dream with my Dominican friend, Angelo Salazar (a fabulous artist as you can see by the photo with him and one of his works) asked me why I wasn't actively doing my dream. It was a great question and I decided to be proactive about making this happen. Something else I had been thinking about is how life can get caught up with every day things and we can sort of "let life happen". It is from this process that I created my life motto "living with no regret". I don't want to get to the end of my life and regret things I did or did not do.
Angelo Salazar, a fabulous Dominican Artist
So I left Habitat and applied to different schools to get my MBA (being a bit of a geek, I have wanted my MBA since I was in High School). After an absolutely wonderful year at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, AZ I had my MBA and a better idea of how I wanted to live the dream - I just didn't know where.
Thunderbird, "my first day at school"
I spent seven months in Durango Colorado working at a vacation dude ranch (where people go to ride horses for the week) to learn more about horses and managing a property surrounded by the forces of nature. I worked with some fabulous people and had the honor and privilege of working with six amazing women who were in my charge. They taught me alot, made me laugh, and inspired me (Thanks Kathryn, Sherene, Alex, Mickeela, Danielle, and Allison).
Colorado, an amazing place to be!
Since October I have been freelancing with different projects to earn my keep (thanks Fred, KC, Ethan Jack and Junia for keeping me!) and enjoying each day. This is probably the best time of my life. Anyway, I met a couple who want to do exactly what I want to do, only in Romania and with Romanian girls. So, here I go on that adventure. Between now and when I leave for Romania on May 27th I will be driving from California to the east coast and back to Chicago. I have lots of places to go and people to see!
