Hi.

For a solid decade, I had the privilege of working as a middle school English teacher. I loved my job because although it’s a well-kept secret, middle school kids are awesome. Part of my job was to teach a Creative Writing elective—and it was during these classes that my students and I dreamed together of life as a writer.

Like all teachers, my job was demanding, stressful, and seemingly never-ending. As a deeply creative, sensitive, and introverted person, I spent all my soul energy at work, with none left over for my own creation. I valued my job so deeply, and this worked for me, until it didn’t.

After the birth of my child, our small family of three suffered a traumatic event, that distinctly rewrote my brain. I could no longer, no matter how hard I tried, tolerate an environment with lots of people, sounds, activity, and responsibilities—I couldn’t be in the school building. This sent me into a dark night of the soul and a search for who I was, now that I did not have the title teacher.

I’m still searching and learning that the search is life-long…like maybe the search is the point. I’ve been unearthing a lot of dreams and ideas and hurts and hopes and these are spilling into poems.

An apprenticeship in 2023 with the Loft Literary Center’s Poetry Intensive re-ignited my love of poetry and my discipline around my writing practice. While I measure my productivity differently than I used to, I am faithful to my writing and deeply nourished by it and find that time spent writing daily is never wasted time.

I hold a lot of different titles now: mom, gardener, guinea pig caretaker, contemplative, spouse, friend, daughter, sister, Lego-organizer, aunt, Minnesotan, reader, creator, and poet.