I was born with a Congenital Heart Defect which resulted in a birth defect of a hole in between my right and left ventricles of my heart which mixed my oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. At 9 months old I had open heart surgery to repair the hole.
Like all children, when I was young I dipped my toes into many different sports: gymnastics, soccer, hockey, volleyball, swimming, etc. I was trying to find a sport that I really loved and I found it in 2005 with swimming. I began swimming competitively on a team until 2008 when I had to stop because I started getting sick.
A few months before my 16th birthday I began getting sick from everything I ate and started to loose a lot of weight. A few weeks after I turned 16 I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. A disease that makes me have gluten intolerance. With this diagnosis I had to cut out all wheat products from my diet and changing the way I ate forever. My food selection was already limited after I turned vegetarian when I was 14 years old, but after becoming Celiac it was about to get even harder. At first I found the gluten-free diet hell but then I learned to live with it and my gluten-free vegetarian diet became a lifestyle. Many people critique that I'm stupid for being a vegetarian when I'm Celiac because I can't eat as much, but honestly its not as hard as it sounds.
All throughout high school I was on my schools swim team, but in Grade 12 I decided to join the cross country team. I was very good - I'm more of a swimmer then a runner - but I enjoyed it none-the-less. After high school I never trained or ran any races, but I still went for runs occasionally.
In September 2010, I began university at the University of Waterloo in the Geography & Aviation program in hopes of fulfilling my dream of becoming a pilot. After my first year I had to move back home because I couldn't afford the lifestyle of being a student living away from home in a extremely expensive program. Currently, I am at the University of Windsor study History. Don't get confused, my goal is still to become a pilot, I just decided to go on a different route of getting there. I am planned to graduate in June 2013 and then plan to take a year and work to make as much money as possible and then do my flight training at a private flight training school in Windsor.
I have been working as a lifeguard since 2008 for the Town of Essex, Town of Tecumseh, and the University of Waterloo. I also have been working at my local arena since 2012.
In March of 2012 I decided on a whim that I was going to sign up for my first Half-Marathon in the Detroit Free-Press Marathon Series. My goal only being to finish the race. Once I started training for the race I started to extremely enjoy running. I found going for my runs calming and head clearing. I found my experience with the Detroit Free-Press Half-Marathon so great that this year I decided to do it again, along with the Ottawa Half-Marathon in May and other small races around where I live.
Though my dreams and goals are what drives me in life, I would most definitely steer off track without my amazing best friends, wonderful family, and unbelievable boyfriend!
Though my dreams and goals are what drives me in life, I would most definitely steer off track without my amazing best friends, wonderful family, and unbelievable boyfriend!
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