Let's call this an autobiography instead! I could type it to make it look like someone else was doing it, but what's the point, really! :o)
So, let's start from the very beginning... a very good place to start! Ever since I've had the ability to have memories, I've been singing. I love it. There is nothing else I've wanted to do, as a matter of fact. The first performance of mine was at a church, age two, and singing that classic tune "Shamgar had an ox goat". Oh, come on! You know it!
Seriously, I don't think I've ever even questioned what I was supposed to do. It's almost like it was written there before I had a chance to even toss up options. I didn't want any other options! Yes, I still had (have) hobbies that filled up my time, but I only had one passion, and that is music and all its' facets. So naturally I did all the stuff that goes along with that growing up... buying cassettes and singing at the local churches, community events, and school functions. In high school I started writing songs for the first time, and suddenly I had another outlet for creativity in music.
My senior year of high school was full of writing, recording, traveling, and entering any and all competitions for singing and songwriting. It was great and exciting, and it also put me in contact with people that would be very instrumental in bringing me where I am right now. Once I graduated, I spent that summer on the road singing at summer camps, making okay money, and having a BLAST. It was much better than a typical teenage summer job, that is for sure!
Once the summer was up, I spent one semester in college and decided that was quite enough! I moved to Nashville to start working with a record company. Through a series of events, I realized that although there were some great things about where I was, there were more reasons to not be there anymore! There were some things I just didn't want to compromise. I didn't want to pretend to be or look like or write for someone I'm not! At the very same time I had this epiphany, I was offered a spot on a cross-country tour of college campuses for an outstanding organization uniting college students for one purpose. So I gladly packed up my place, stuffed it all in storage, and hopped on a tour bus for the next 7 months. It was hard, and it was irreplaceable!
After the tour, I took up residence in Atlanta, and I lived and worked from there until the present. I have been singing full time since high school, for big and little venues, large and small conferences, national and local accounts for commercials, and everything in between, and I wouldn't trade it! I got married to an outstanding man (way to go me!), and we now live in sunny California. No, we didn't come out here to "make it". We like the weather, the people, and the freedom to do what we do musically.
The most important thing for me in life is to live out of a full heart, passionate about making people realize that there is a reason we are here: to make the most of our time and to be purposeful in our endeavors. We can live out of a deeper place, a place that our Creator calls us to. This is what I hope my craft- my life- reflects.