My Portfolio

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Me:

I was born in Missoula, Montanna in 1999 to two rebels at heart; Andrea and Greg. I grew up as the oldest in my household and was raised in Washington. I moved 13 times during childhood and was often tasked with cooking meals and doing chores for the house while my mother was in school and working. Growing up, my mother emphasized the importance of natural foods and disciplined productivity. 

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My father passed away when I was 8 years old in Harbor View Hospital’s burn unit from a tragic accident. The man who raised me is named Steve. He became a part our lives when I was 11 years old. As a man of 3 daughters and husband to a zany wife; he is our family’s glue and calming presence. He instilled the importance of “doing it right the first time” and "not playing stupid (as a woman)" within playing the game of life.

 

Both of my parents; Andrea & Steve are type "A" people. As a result my sister and I developed chronic productivity and each had our own identity crisis at an early age, primarily from societal conditioning, and in lieu of our generational pressure and family-rearing values to excel.

 

Starting as early as middle school, and up to my current life, I've explored and researched religions, spirituality, cultures, and embodied female role-models (who are all different shapes, sizes, and colors) to begin the deconstruction of generations of female pressure and suppression within my own lineage (I had no idea I was doing this at the time - until my recent studies at the University of Washington learning about cognitive development).

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Common with many women that grew up in the 90's - early 2000's, I developed vigorous body dysmorphic disorder at a young age, stemming from pop-culture's feed into the youth that beauty was to look like Hannah Montana or Brittany Spears...often with a deep tan, calloused feet from climbing trees, almost black hair, and a naturally curvy build - I represented everything that was not cool. 

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By the time high school hit, I saved up money bought my first juicer, and began juicing religiously, fasting religiously and informing myself on how to eat healthy without dieting, after religiously reading dieting and anti-dieting books...

During this time, I also became obsessed with measuring my food, doing calisthenics, and Pilates DVD's in our house basement, and of course walking my soul-dog Zoie in our neighborhood daily.

 

This version of me died for various reasons, health-wise being that bulimia and the alcohol filled party-phase I entered into during late high-school didn't mix well as I'm sure you can imagine...I then gave-up these obsessions for other pursuits...

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After gaining various female mentors, and coaches, and health specialists of my own; I learned to see beyond societal standards and narrow expectations surrounding feminine embodiment in reflection of my own experienced eating disorders and societal and internal pressures to "be good enough" or fit into a certain sterotype.

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I began my studies at the Everett Community College with a focus in business while working as a pharmacy assistant and technician. After 5 years, I couldn’t ignore the patterns of corruption in correlation to our healthcare system, and I switched careers to Early Childhood Education. I then completed my Associate of Applied Science in Early Childhood Education from Lake Washington Institute of Technology while working in preschools. Before graduating, I started my first Director position running an Early Learning Preschool licensed for up to 140 children in a 90% DSHS funded demographic. After a year of fighting with the company for better quality food, and increased staff wages, I moved to another company as a Director. Unfortunately the patterns of inadequacy for Early Childhood Education continued, and I left the company.

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MY OWN DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

Prior to Spring 2025, the feelings of being lost and not fulfilling my passion to help people began to build in my chest and throat again...I had just ended a 5-year long relationship, was mentally and physically inflamed, physically overweight, out of touch with my typical nutrition standards, and not practicing any form of spirituality or consistent vigorous physical activity. 

 

Out of my own personal avoidance for these things, I then thought it would be a good idea to start Meraki House as my own early learning school: a vision to start the upcoming generation with tools that weren't and still aren't standardized in our current education system...

I built the needed connections for a physical location, had amazing teachers ready to hire to teach the children, and a bullet-proof education plan to appease the state, and raise the standards of curriculum...The week I secured location, connection, and interested funding partners, my plan was halted to a complete STOP due to the unthinkable: 2 charges of "attempting to take, conceal, and kill animals..." with a maximum sentence of 2 years in jail and $5,000 (yes WTF is an accurate response). My dream then turned into a nightmare of court hearings, paperwork, firing & hiring lawyers, and ultimately total financial depletion... (again...WTF is an accurate response)...

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Not knowing if I was going to jail or not (keep in mind after the end of a mini-divorce), forced me to stop running from myself mentally and emotionally. 

 

 It was the best and absolute worst year of my entire life....I learned that to be the leader I wanted to be: I needed to understand, actively practice, and role-model the benefit of alignment over correction, fulfillment over achievement, and authenticity over ideology...To fix the education system, I needed to dig even deeper and heal myself first...

 

Fall 2025, I began studying Early Childhood Education & Family Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle; a beautiful program based in helping educators understand the importance of fully understanding themselves to be the best educators they can be. I chose to coincide this education with finalizing my Holistic Health Practitioner certification and Nutrition Consultant certification to understand how I can heal to fully support a reformed approach to the standardized American education and nutrition systems.

 

MERAKI HOUSE TAKES A NEW IDENTITY

Fall 2025, I began studying Early Childhood Education & Family Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle; a beautiful program based in helping educators understand the importance of fully understanding themselves to be the best educators they can be. I chose to coincide this education with finalizing my Holistic Health Practitioner certification and Nutrition Consultant certification to understand how I can heal myself to be the best leader I can be to myself and others. In doing so, I've hypothesized that true Early Childhood Education is the healing of the system as a whole - which means healing & reforming not just the structure, and curriculum, but the people with it. 

 

This is my last year of study and then my case-load will begin - in the meantime, I've decided to keep the foundation of Meraki House as an attestament of vulnerable healing to encourage people to do the same.

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There are so many deeper reasons as to my "why" for holistic health that I could write a book. Go to the "About" page to gain a general understanding! Anyways...here are my credentials/experience thus far:

 

- 2 years farm-hand

- 5 years pharmacy assistant/technician

- 9 years 3rd-party early learning, care, education teaching

- 2 years administrative early childhood education leadership (Director)

- 1 year program manager

- Associate of Applied Science in Early Childhood Education

- Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education (in progress)

- Nutrition Consultant (in progress)

- Holistic Health Practitioner (in progress)

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