Okay, here goes. I will be 22 years old on June 7th, and am still attending Florida State University. I am a Music therapy major (a field which emphasizes using music to better quality of life...if you'd like more info visit The American Music Therapy Association). I have really enjoyed studying with Dr. Jayne Standley and Professor Dianne Grogory here at FSU. They have really made the trip to Tallahassee worth while. I have completed all of my undergraduate course work, and will begin internship in January 2002 with Jane Hughes and Brenda Rice in Leon County School District in Tallahassee. I am looking forward to the challenge. This fall I will be staying in Jacksonville, and plan on working and starting the course work for my next endeavor...a Masters in Special Education. My hope is to some day design a music therapy program for the Duval County Schools here in Jacksonville.

Let's back up a little bit now...say about 22 years. I was born in Memphis TN. I was a pretty normal baby, but I had a cleft palate (a hole in the soft palate of my mouth). Since surgery could not be done until I was 2, my mother had to try several things to feed me, and it was difficult. But, she did it. Finally deciding that I had enough sucking power to use a regular bottle nipple, she punched holes in bunches of premie nipples until she found the right size...and after that ONE single surgery at 2, here I am today. :)

There have been other problems besides the cleft palate. At the age of 8, I was diagnosed with an unknown nueromuscular disorder. To this day, the doctors still don't know. I moved with my family to Jacksonville, FL four years ago, and the doctors here retested and tried out some new ideas. For a while it even appeared they might have something, but it still turned out to be a negative. But don't worry about me. I have had 2 surgeries on my feet, one at 10 and one at 13, and at this moment I am stable and living a perfectly normal life. It's just tough sometimes not knowing exactly why, even if I have faith that God will take care of it. After all, since I don't know exactly what this is, I also don't really have anyone to specifically relate to. I have very definite similarities to someone with Charcot Marie Tooth Disease, but it's still not exact. For one thing, I have no heridity for this disease and I still don't have all the symptoms. Not that this is at all bad, it's just hard to explain..."Well...I sorta have this...but I really don't."

So, in a nutshell, that's me. The move to Jacksonville right out of highschool was tough, and I miss my buddies from TN greatly. But at least it's given me more to chew on regarding my disorder. Maybe someday the doctors may figure it out. Maybe they never will. It's in God's hands.