Born and raised in a small, rural town in the California foothills, I was quite eager to get out and explore the world. At 16 years old, I enrolled in college courses to gain enough credits to graduate high school a year early.  Then, after just turning 17 I set out to Germany to study Biochemistry and Cell Biology. I had a dream of doing cancer research and then retiring to be a primary school teacher. After a year and a half of the program, I realized that the lab was not where I was meant to be. Instead, I travelled to the Netherlands to join the ITEps program and become the teacher I am today.