How did I get here?

We all start out with ideas of where we will find our place in the world, how we will make it better, the glorious friends we will have, and the tremendous places we will see. Not all our dreams turn out the way we expect, some times that is for the best. Some dreams are so skewed you have to wonder "When did I take the wrong fork in the road?”

When I was born my mother said I was the most beautiful baby, people came from all over to see me I was so gorgeous. You tell me, was I a gorgeous baby? I think they were just being polite. Really, how many times are you going to tell a new mother her baby is not just the most precious bundle of joy you ever saw). I guess I grew up the way most of us do, brothers, sister, mother and father, traditional family. My mother is Austrian (straight off the boat) and my father Italian (his boat experience was a couple of generations earlier), both my older siblings were born in Austria, I was the first born on US soil. My father worked for the government so we traveled from place to place. I don't have friends from when I was young, but I can talk to anyone as a result. You learn to appreciate your family, when you first move they are your best and only friends.

When I was eleven, we moved to Puerto Rico. I still have a friend from that experience, we don't speak every day, it can be years between chats, but when we do, it is just as if she has been with me forever. Now, she is in Costa Rica being a free spirit. She deserves this time to be footloose. I think we get along so well because we were molded from the same clothe. At fourteen, we moved to Hendersonville, NC. What a culture shock. Not that one was better than the other, both were just so different. Geographically, ocean...mountains. Seasons, North Carolina has them and Puerto Rico doesn't. Accents...oh it was almost different languages. They both are rich in history, pride, and honor. Both have played very important roles in my journey.