A bit about me…I grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia and have lived there my entire life. I have two parents(of course) and both have been very supportive about every adventure I embark on. I have one younger brother who just got married last May and on October 2, 2009, he and his wife had a beautiful little girl named Peyton. 
I have been very involved in my Catholic faith from a very young age. I couldn’t wait to be in youth group when I was in elementary school. When 6th grade came around I dove head first in to my faith; not just being involved with youth group, but also on various retreat teams and planning councils. Throughout high school I was still involved locally but also got involved on a diocesan level helping plan a state wide convention for about 500 youth. After my first semester of college I was asked to be the youth minister of my parish, which was a huge undertaking being so close in age to the high schoolers, but it helped me grow in my faith. After a few years I needed a break from school and “reality” per say and took a semester off from school. During that time, I lived in Costa Rica participating in Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School, which totally changed my outlook on life. Once I got home I went back to finish up my undergrad in marketing while working at a local supplement store and competing in a few powerlifting competitions.
For the past 5 years I have had the opportunity to work as a college staff member with Catholic HEART Workcamp (CHWC) (www.heartworkcamp.com). CHWC is a service based organization that gives high schoolers the opportunities to go into a community and do a variety of service projects such as: painting, small home repair, yard work, working with the elderly, etc. As part of the college staff we traveled from city to city, set up the program areas, and put on the program at night. The program at night involved doing different skits, camp characters, and giving testimonials and various other talks. Being a part of this ministry with CHWC has shown me so much about my faith and how to spread God’s love everyday. One of the drawbacks to being on CHWC staff is that I have not been able to do the physical labor of helping the people in the community, instead my role has been to minister and and serve the high schoolers attending camp. I have loved what I have been doing the past several years, I just feel at this point in my life it’s time for me to go out and get my hands dirty, literally.
I have been seeking and praying about what I want to do in life and when a friend told me about The World Race and what it was all about, I just had to check it out. After reading about The World Race it seemed as though my prayers were answered. I now have the opportunity to get my hands dirty and do some real hard work and I cannot wait for the adventure to begin.
(Thanks to my dear friend Julie for making sure I did not have any grammatical errors in what you just read.)
A few other tidbits and random facts:
I love the ocean and I especially love to surf.
I love to workout and follow a bodybuilding lifestyle. I have also competed in a few power lifting competitions.
The following is a video of my 2nd competition benching 300lbs:
