My Story
I was born in November 1978 in Savannah, GA in the living room of a drafty run-down house nicknamed “treehouse”. My Mom, Dad and two half-brothers were living with several other fun-loving hippie families working odd jobs and running the very first and very unprofitable food co-op in Savannah. Within a few years most of the families migrated up to Asheville, NC and lived together in the “cumberland house” before realizing communal living was more idealistic than realistic and going their separate ways.
My parents split up and my Dad moved back to Savannah, married and became much more normal. I stayed in Asheville with my Mom, a struggling artist, and life proceeded to get much less normal. We moved nineteen times before I was 10. Nineteen times before I was 10 with at least 2 goats, dozens of chickens in cardboard boxes stacked to the roof, dogs on the floorboard and cats under the seats. And yes, I got peed and pooped on…a lot!
I remember moving into a shack, literally a one-room shack with no running water or electricity in the middle of the woods. One evening we made cinnamon toast over a blazing flame in the abandoned fireplace and BOOM down the chimney came three huge writhing snakes so frenzied with a shock of smoke and fire they slammed into walls and furniture before my Mom could swoosh them out with a broom.
As a kid I was free to roam in the woods wherever we lived. I spent my time knee-deep in creeks catching crawdads and salamanders. At home, after school I learned to entertain myself with words. I wrote romance novels, ghost stories and did imaginary interviews on my boombox. I made journals of poetry. Sappy, luscious, flowery ramblings of childhood innocence and teenage angst poured on to the page with all my ache and heart. I read countless stories out loud to my always willing Mom. She was my greatest fan.
By the time I graduated with a Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon I was in love with kayaking and outdoor sports. I worked at gear shops for discounts on kayaks and took up every outdoor adventure sport I could learn. When I landed a job at Patagonia in their dealer service department I was positive my ship had come in. Over the next fifteen years I worked my way up from customer service to field sales to management with some of the best and most prestigious outdoor brands in the industry.
But there was always something missing. There was always a whisper coming from deep in my heart singing, “you’re supposed to write”. I have a strong aversion to anything unstable in my career. I like steadiness and routines including a regular paycheck every two weeks. But in 2018 I became a Mom, something I had desired a very long time. My steady routine got thrown out the window. I couldn’t imagine leaving my sweet babe to go on work trips. I quit my position as an online account manager and embarked on a journey to redefine my career and follow the whisper in my heart.
Within a year I started OTC (Outdoor Technology Communications), combining my love of business, outdoors and writing. OTC provides creative and authentic content that inspires action. We find the voice that speaks from the heart while connecting and engaging communities. Words usher communities to the doorsteps of like-minded businesses. I’m just at the beginning of this journey and so far there are no goats peeing on my head, so I can’t complain:)