Aloha!
I'm Maggie and I grew up in White Bear Lake Minnesota, right outside of Saint Paul. I went to Mahtomedi High School and attended Hamline University where I switched my major four times from law to elementary education to business and finally settled on accounting. At the threat of sounding like a nerd, I absolutely love accounting. I am now at St. Thomas University working towards my master’s degree in accountancy and will be graduating in June.
Despite their quirkiness, I love my family. I'm really close to my younger brother and sister: Willy who loves to sail and my trilingual sister, Ellen. Willy is a sophomore in High School and Ellen is a freshman at George Washington University in D.C. I have two amazing, slightly odd, parents who divorced when I was in 3rd grade. The divorce definitely complicated my childhood, but despite the pain a divorce always seems to create, it has strengthened me. Watching my parents struggle over custody rights for half a decade, taught me invaluable lessons about marriage, kindness and life.
I was not raised in a Christian home. My mom, frustrated by her Catholic roots, turned to the Unitarian community. My father, while on paper a Methodist, constructed ideas of Jesus as an alien from Mars-like I said, my parents are a little odd. However, God did not give up on me. It was the summer of 7th grade when my lovely friend Lisa invited me to Lake Geneva church camp that I felt the ever present love of God. He is always there but sometimes we need a little help to see Him.
Although in High School I fell away from God, I always felt Him pulling me closer towards Him. It wasn't until my sophomore year of college that I truly decided to devote myself to Christ. He had always been there for me and it was my turn to return the favor. I was later baptized with my sister in the presence of both our parents. However challenging it was not having parents to encourage me in my faith, they’re ambiguousness to Christianity allowed me to stray back and forth for a while – to really figure out why I believe what I believe. It is why I have an authentic relationship with God, one that is truly my own.
After college graduation, I spent two weeks in Nicaragua on a mission trip with my church, Eagle Brook. While I was working in a feeding center, an elderly woman looked into my eyes and told me “Bonita”, beautiful. I am flawed in every way, but God told me on that trip that I was His, and I was beautiful. Like God does, he called me to do something much bigger. And, it came in the form of the World Race. I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to not only give back but to go on such an amazing adventure. I know that there will be struggles, but through it all, God and I will be together just like He is with every one of us at any moment.
Random Facts about me:
-I seem to be the only person in the world who wears size four shoes
-I sing Christian music loudly in my car
-I once jumped out of a plane…skydiving
-I love riding horses
-Accounting jokes make me laugh
-I seem to lose/break things regularly
-I have a really fat dog named Bella Bear
-I raced a little pink sailboat in elementary school and beat all the boys
-I am a total geek – I love Excel spreadsheets and Accounting
-I love spontaneity
-I won a fly fishing contest when I was six
-I know how to drive a 1924 Ford Model T
-If I could live anywhere, I would live in the mountains
-I ski and I snowboard but I still can't decide which I like better
