Hi Steemians! I’m new to the community and wanted to introduce myself. # New Beginnings I grew up in Forks, WA (Yes, the sparkly vampire place). Forks is a small logging town located in a rural area of the Washington coast. Growing up I barely traveled more than a few hundred miles from my hometown. After High School, I spent many years working in mills or driving trucks. So many in fact, that my current office attire includes flannel shirts and steel toe boots. I guess once you find your style it’s hard to roll it back. :) When I was 35 I decided that it was time for a new adventure in life and enrolled at the local community college. At that point I was a single parent of three young boys, ages 12, 6, and 4. Today, I have a Master’s degree in Public Health and am considering doctorate programs, but this isn’t the story of surviving college while working and raising three children by myself (although there may be a point in sharing that story another time). Today I promised to tell you how I decided to save the world. As I mentioned, my world view was pretty small in those days. Sure, I had seen the late night TV advertisements promising to support hungry children somewhere in the world for the price of a mere cup of coffee, but those places seemed barely real. While working to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Children’s Studies I began to read about the difficult lives of children around the world. There are children around the world that lack access to basic things like food, clean water, education, or health care. There are children who need to work to help support their families, sometimes even working dangerous jobs such as mining. Children are forced into the sex trades or militias. At some point, I decided that these weren’t just problems out in the world, they are *our* problems, these are *my* problems. # What’s next My ultimate career goals include disease outbreak response, and working to help child soldiers and children otherwise caught up in armed conflicts. I famously told my neighbors daughter that I’d probably die in a jungle somewhere, and that Bruce Willis would play me in the movie. lol. Right now, I’ve still got my own family to raise before I can go run off around the world. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the world is a bad place. I’m optimistic about the world. Over the years, I’ve heard old men complain about politics, crime, drugs, technology, and how the world was generally better back in the “good old days.” Those old men are wrong. I think the world is better off than it was in the “good old days” and that there are even better days on the horizon. The things that are wrong in the world, we can work together and fix.

For the last few years I have worked on many problems that are right here in front of me. I advocate for the importance of unstructured play in the lives of children. I’ve written and presented on the use of deadly force by law enforcement (and have more planned on that topic). I've been involved in a variety of emergency preparedness projects and occasionally teach classes on personal emergency preparedness. Finally my current 9-5 job is researching occupational health and safety issues in maritime occupations.

I’m excited to be a part of Steemit and excited about meeting people and getting to know the community. I look forward to writing more about myself and my journey, as well as the many projects that I’m working on. :)