My life was built on a foundation of countercultural moves – some of these include being homeschooled, going to the Philippines at age 16, graduating early, and opting out of college. When I started exploring post-secondary education options nothing about the thought of going to college made sense. I didn’t want to end up in the same place everybody else was going, so why spend four years doing what everybody else was doing. It was the definition of insanity to do the same thing and expect different results. Friends of the family found and suggested Praxis; at once my heart was overjoyed. I knew it was just unconventional enough to work. When I made the decision to apply I quickly learned that rising to the challenge would start long before the program did. It took three rounds of the application process to finally be accepted to the program! Thankfully, my tenacious spirit doesn’t do well with being told “no.”

I’ve never really handled limitations of how I should be living well. I often feel that limitations can be the end all be all of success. I, however, choose to see success as excellence. Excellence then has to develop a new definition, a working definition. Building off what was once excellence as I learn, grow, and experience new things. This allows my excellence to continue to grow. This sort of excellence looks like spending countless hours geocaching with kids I babysat to minimize the amount of TV they watched. This excellence looks like communicating a story worth hearing, allowing me to go overseas twice last year within 4 months! Excellence, as a working definition looks like trial and error, like fearlessness and failure.

My heart for culture, communities, and the world as a whole is rooted solely in my desire to see excellence come to fruition. I feel so deeply that value is meant to be created AND shared. From my experiences I have learned that value resonates with people in a way that not much else can. If you bring something valuable to the table, you will always have a seat. Journey with me, let’s explore the possibilities of value together.

Want to see a little bit more of my journey to value? You can check out this blog post with my story by clicking here, or you can follow me on LinkedIn by clicking here. You also have the ability follow me on Twitter by clicking here If you would rather, you can follow my Instagram by clicking here