Five Short Stories About Me

1: I grew up on my family's oyster farm out in Discovery Bay, Washington. The nearest town to Discovery Bay is Port Townsend, which is located on the northeastern end of the Olympic Peninsula (about sixty miles east of Seattle). I spent most of my time following my dad around, listening to him talk about algae, oysters, diatoms, and how they all fit into the ocean's larger ecosystems. My childhood is undoubtedly the root of my continuing fascination with the natural world. 

Oyster Farm

2: I am currently majoring in Biology and minoring in Marine Science at Stony Brook University. One of the clearest memories I posses from the 4th grade was one of the more boring days I attended during elementary school. Disenchanted with the day's lessons, I started flipping through a stray textbook sitting underneath my chair. As the glossy pages slid through my fingers, a simplistic diagram of a plant cell caught my eye. It was the first time that the concept of a cell was introduced to me and I have been struggling to satiate my curiosity regarding such things ever since. 

Stony Brook University

3: I decided to attend school in New York rather than Washington because I intend to take any opportunity to travel that presents itself to me. While the Northwest will always manage to pull me back, I am tremendously excited to see where I will end up over the years.

Downtown Port Townsend, WA (Left) and Times Square, NY (Right)

4: I have two older sisters, two dogs, and one fat Siamese cat. The former are my support network, while the latter three are my 'adventure buddies' when I wander through the woods surrounding my house. 

No matter how many kind words of encouragement we've given her

over the last nine years, our black lab still refuses to swim.

5: Shown below is the cake my sisters baked from scratch for my 20th birthday. It consisted of five layers, each packed with a different assortment of berries or chocolate chips and separated by a different frosting before the entire teetering confection was covered in chocolate frosting and topped with strawberries.

Everyone present that night was given a large slice.