Here’s a post for you all to get to know me better… 5 things you probably didn’t know!
I’ve always been entrepreneurial.
As young as the age of 8, I was selling lemonade on the sidewalk near my house. I then graduated to little bead animals that I made by hand and even created and printed signs and marketing materials from my computer to put on my “stand”. As I got a little older at 12, I started an animal watching business, going door to door and posting flyers around the neighborhood. I started watching the neighbor’s cats, dogs, birds, etc when they were out of town.
I had a life threatening horse accident.
At the end of August of 2002, I had a life altering horse accident at my home in Oregon. We had a huge arena that was on a main road, and I was riding my horse, Jazzy, when she violently tripped and fell completely down. I went over the side of Jazzy’s neck and smashed my face into the arena ground; the doctors said that it was equivalent to hitting the windshield of a car, and that if I didn’t have braces at the time, I probably wouldn’t have any teeth. I was knocked unconscious and while I still had a grip on one of my reins, my horse got up, stepped on my thigh above my knee, and drug me until she stepped on the rein and broke it. I also had a rock go completely through the side of my chin exposing my braces. Fortunately, all of the dirt that got packed into the hole my face stopped the bleeding. I was then rushed to the hospital and had a concussion, bruise on the cerebellum of my brain, a broken nose, broken orbit under my eye with fluid filled sinuses, a hole in my chin which cut the nerves to smile normally, and a muscle atrophy on my thigh in the shape of a hoof. My eye swelled so large that it split my eyelid and required stitches, and my chin required stitches in and outside of my mouth. I don’t have any recollection of the accident, or much memory around that time in my life. My nose was reconstructed (not changed in any way) pretty soon after the freak accident, and then I immediately went back to my Sophomore year of high school (which started in late September) and even made it to homecoming and to the US Nationals Arabian horse show in Louisville, Kentucky to watch. I still needed to fix the orbit under my eye as it had fallen back without the support and was vastly different than my other eye. Upon evaluation of the time needed to be out of school, and my general travel heavy lifestyle, I approached my parents and decided to complete my high school education online. I headed to Portland to have the orbit reconstructed where they put piece of my mesh under my eye to support it, which I can still feel today! Phew! That was a long one, but I don’t think very many people know about the details of my accident and how it affects someone physically, mentally and emotionally. It is unbelievably humbling, and it truly puts so many things into perspective.
I started working professionally at 15 and started my own business while completing college online at 19.
After my accident and not going to public school, I started working professionally for my father’s company as a graphic designer at 15. This started as a way to understand the cost associated with horse ownership, so I took over one of my horse’s bills (that was in professional training). After I worked so hard the first month, I wrote my first check to the horse trainer, which took almost all of my newly earned funds. This was a great lesson and definitely made me appreciate and understand what it takes. I continued working for him until I started my own graphic design business and horse training business at 19. I knew that I definitely wanted to earn a college degree, but knew that I wouldn’t have the time to attend a campus. I completed my degree at night online while working full time building my business during the daytime.
I lost most of my hearing shooting guns with ear protection on.
About 4 years ago, I went shooting with my boyfriend at an outdoor gun range. I had gone shooting with him before, as this was one of his favorite hobbies. We shot for a couple hours before heading to a friend’s birthday dinner. When I got to dinner, I could barely hear anything, everything sounded like I was inside a tin can. I figured it would come back the following day as I’ve gone to concerts before and felt a little “mute” afterwards, but it always came back. I woke up the following day and my hearing wasn’t any better. Since I was born, I’ve always been a little hard of hearing. I became an expert in lip reading growing up and never had any major problems. I could tell that this was very different. I was confused as I did wear ear protection, but our only conclusion was that it wasn’t working. Upon getting and audiogram and being referred to a specialist, we tried steroids, and poking a hole in my eardrum, none of which worked. I was left with one last option, which was shocking for a 26-year-old to take in. My right ear is pretty much a blown out speaker, so no matter how loud something is, it is not audible, and my left ear has mediocre at best. I was told that my only option was to wear a hearing device with a speaker on my “bad” side that transfers over to my “good” one. Fast forward to today and I am SO thankful that I have the device. They make a huge difference, however, social situations can still be really challenging, especially when there is a lot of background noise going on. Showing horses has also become a challenge that I’m still addressing.
I can’t stand tomatoes or onions.
Unless it involves salsa, which disappears if it’s in the house, as well as tomato sauce on pasta, I can’t stand tomatoes… or onions. I have tried to be open minded and try them several times and just cannot get used to the taste, which is crazy as my mom can eat them by themselves like an apple with some salt! And I can literally smell onions from a mile away, even if they’re been removed from a sandwich!
Well, hope you found that interesting! Thanks for stopping by! 😉
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