My story thus far...

This is Me:

I liked school (the learning part), but not authority...
After completing high school in North Carolina, where I took AP classes and skipped school for yoga classes and unmentionable shenanigans, I left for college in New York City. I made it into Pratt Institute and spent my first year in the Foundation Program, drawing, painting, sculpting and learning graphic design programs (my intended major). Sophomore year, I switched to the Industrial Design program and there I stayed. I learned product design, furniture design, exhibit design, welding, 3-D graphics programs, and concluded with a summer in Denmark, studying and building Scandinavian furniture at the Danish Design School via DIS Program. All the while experimenting with drugs, sexuality, image, music...who am I? Overall a terrific experience.

After college, I moved out to Portland, OR. Not having the desire to actually get a job, I farted around working for my dad and for a number of other tyrants doing construction and woodworking. Little did I know I just wanted to "find myself".

So I did what a good little girl would do, I got a "real" job...dun dunn duun (ominous sound). Worked as a "Project Manager/Exhibit Designer" for Intex Exhibit Systems. I survived in that windowless cubicle for a year, mostly due to my friend Joe. We played Frisbee and walked on the railroad track for far too long at lunch. This is Joe:We worked for a crazy boss whose ethics were way off.

Around this time I was in denial that I was wasting my life in a cubicle, I happened to look on craig's list and decided to join an Eco Tourism group going to Ecuador to travel down the Amazon River into the jungle with the Cofan, an indigenous people. Before I left however, I was laid-off. I took it personally at the time, now I thank them. It was the best thing to happen to me.

We left in December 2005 and returned in January 2006. During that time I woke up out of my illusion. I awoke from the apathy, depression, lifelessness... whatever you want to call the walking zombies so many of us have become. I saw the world anew and decided I wanted to do something with my life that mattered. Yes, I had thought this before, but now I believed I could do it and I wouldn't settle for less.

Of course, when I came back to the states I fell right back into the depression. I couldn't see how to fit into a world based on greed. I knew the hippies and the yuppies didn't have the answer. Deep down I knew no one had the answer and I was depressed. I was getting unemployment and spending my time smoking pot and avoiding myself. I took yoga classes, participated in community events and still I couldn't connect with that feeling I had in the jungle...

...Until I found Tzun Tzun. He taught Tibetan Chi Kung though an organization called Quiet Thunder. Really, it wasn't about the chi kung. He helped us get back into our bodies through meditation, chi kung, and speaking the truth we didn't want to hear. I didn't like it at first, I was probably there as a form of self abuse. Over the years things have changed (and continue to change) a lot. Classes with Tzun Tzun are fun and challenging, it's a cultivation of energy and spirit.

Throughout all this, I learned about myself. I love connecting to people through touch. I desire to help other people get back into their bodies. I see massage as a preventative medicine and as a healing transmission to both parties.

My own study of energy and the sacred began with the trip in the Amazon basin, was revived in Chi Kung classes here in Portland and became my own during my journey through massage school.

Thanks for reading my first blog ever! It's amazing to look back and learn about myself through blogging. Who'da thunk?