Recovering: overachiever, alcoholic, and perfectionist.

Unabashed lover of: alliteration, the lime green new growth on plants, gymnastics podcasts, and reggaeton (sorry not sorry).

Enneagram One (see recovering perfectionist), ESL and writing professor, wife, friend, and mama to two spunky kids in San Diego, California.

Seeker of growth learning to embrace grace. 

My writing journey started as a seven-year-old filling my Lisa Frank notebooks with “realistic descriptions” of my mom’s “hair like curly fries,” my own “jack-o-lantern smile,” and my gymnastics coach’s “clickety-clacking fake nails.” I earned a degree in Journalism and Creative Writing from Point Loma Nazarene University, where I continued to brainstorm metaphors to make sense of the world while studying craft.

After graduating from college, I joined international development nonprofit, Plant With Purpose, as a Staff Writer and Grants Specialist. I sleuthed out program information, wrote compelling proposals, reports, blogs, and newsletters, and soaked in everything I could related to poverty alleviation and international development.

Since I wasn’t getting any younger, I decided to act on my longtime dream of living in Central America. After much prayer and deliberation, I took the plunge and traded my predictable San Diego schedule for a less predictable life living in Antigua, Guatemala. I left fully expecting that I would meet the man of my dreams and live in Guatemala forever.

That didn’t happen.

I stayed in Guatemala for a year then moved back to San Diego in 2013. I pursued a Master’s Degree in TESOL/Applied Linguistics. I taught citizenship classes to immigrants on their path to U.S. citizenship. I met the man of my dreams (a Filipino, not a Guatemalan), we married in September 2015 and welcomed our first child, Aidan, in 2016, and our daughter, Nadia, in 2018. 

I now work as an ESL and writing professor and continue to write “realistic” reflections in the margins of my days.

My writing topics range from sharing my love of T.S. Eliot to my struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to motherhood to faith and doubt and spirituality.

I hope we find grace and connection here. Please stick around.