I always wanted to be a writer, which is why I studied magazine journalism as an undergrad at Kent State University, near my hometown in Ohio. I veered away from my major, though, after becoming a Resident Assistant (RA) and realizing that building community among a bunch of college students living on campus was an exciting gig. I enjoyed programming for the residents and mediating roommate conflicts, and although "writing up" students for noise and alcohol violations was not the best part of the job, the whole package was so appealing, it led me right into grad school at the University of Florida (UF), where I earned a Master of Education with a focus on higher education administration and college student personnel—kind of a blend of counseling, crisis management, and paperwork.I spent seven years in professional college and university jobs in Virginia and Florida, living in campus apartments, responding to the needs of the masses, and documenting and making sense of every speck of what took place. Then came two kids, a move to the Florida suburbs, a few years as a stay-at-home mom, and then an overwhelming diagnosis at age 34: breast cancer. Cancer was not the worst event that could have happened, though, because after a year and a half of blogging about my journey, editors started contacting me and asking if I would write for pay. And so was born the writing career, 18 years after I first declared that journalism major.I currently live in Gainesville, Florida, with my two young adult sons and 7-year-old Portuguese Water Dog and work as the managing editor of multiple N2 Publishing magazines that span the country. I also grade business writing assignments and edit for a special education grant at UF.