Photo from joyreactor.com

Day 1: The story of your life in 250 words or less (or one paragraph… no one will be counting your words… probably).

Born Karen Michelle on July 25, 1972, in small town, Ohio, I spent the next 33 years informing anyone who called me Karen that my real name was Michelle. Due to my dad’s job, my family upped stakes and moved every few years, an experience that, as a very shy child, I hated with a passion, but for which I’m deeply grateful now. Wanting to be near rooted family members, I chose a college halfway between my mom and my dad’s childhood homes, which allowed me to indulge in the grandmothers’ love and home-cooking on school breaks. Armed with a biology degree and no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, I stuck around my college town after graduation and started to put down roots. After working several years each as a veterinary assistant (gaining enough experience to decide that I definitely did not want to go to vet school) and as a picture framer/retail manager (because it was about as different from being a veterinary assistant as I could get), I finally went back to school to become an elementary teacher. Joining the local Lions Club nabbed me a husband, and when he gave me his last name on New Year’s Eve 2005, I promptly moved my maiden name to the middle position and petitioned the court to make Michelle my legal first name. Now it doesn’t matter how much trouble I’m in, I don’t have to sheepishly await for someone to holler, “Karen Michelle!” 🙂

Exactly 250 words, brought to you by Jenni’s blog-every-day challenge at Story of My Life.