About Me

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog. Here, I want to share a little about me and why I choose to write.

I'm a wife and mother from a small town in northeast Nebraska, where I teach high school English and journalism and coach speech. I started my fifth year as an in-service teacher this past August, and I feel so blessed to be part of a profession that allows me to work with wonderful colleagues, bright and talented youth, and rich subjects like literature and writing.

Another large part of my professional identity is my pursuit of my master's degree in English. I began my graduate work in the summer of 2015, and if all goes as planned, I will finish up in May of 2018. Since re-entering the student life, I've been inspired to write more; it's something I've always loved doing, but once I graduated from college and began working, it seemed like my time was always taken up by something else.

It was when I began my post-grad work in 2015 by enrolling in the Nebraska Writing Project Summer Institute that I realized just how critical my own practice and identity as a writer are to my life, not just as a teacher of writing, but as a human being who uses words to make sense of the world around her (because of its profound significance to my writing journey, I've also linked my NeWP portfolio to this blog, so feel free to check it out for more of my creative and professional writing). Through NeWP, I discovered that I'm a better wife, mom, friend, teacher, mentor when I'm able to find an outlet. And so, I've decided to title this blog with the words of Flannery O'Connor, words that speak profound truth in my own life: "I write to discover what I know."

I plan to use this space to discover what I know about topics like teaching, motherhood, marriage, God, friendships...pretty much anything that finds its way into my heart. I look so forward to writing and hope you'll stop by again if you're interested in reading!