Vol. V, Issue 2: Summer 2007

Where were you born?
I’m an island child—I was born in Hawaii, on the big island.

Where did you grow up?
In the late ’70s, my parents moved to a tiny gold rush town in northern California and settled down on a 90-acre “ranch” in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. My dad built our house from scrap lumber and recycled nails, and we didn’t have electricity or indoor plumbing until I was in middle school. I have fond memories of reading by the light of a kerosene lamp.[1] There were about seven other families also living in rustic cabins tucked away between the California blue oaks. We would come together for holiday potlucks at “the Schoolhouse,” a rambling old building with a working kitchen, an eclectic library, and the only telephone on the property. Best of all, it had a big dance floor which made it an ideal venue for dance parties and drum circles. There was a tiny pond in the center of the property where our neighbor—who just happened to live in a tree house—had trained for the Olympic kayaking trials.[2]

Did you have animals or did you grow your own food?
We had goats, horses, Araucana chickens, turkeys, ducks, dogs, cats, a rabbit, a rat, and an iguana. The Araucanas laid blue eggs which I gathered every morning before school. We made cheese from the goats’ milk. I distinctly remember lamenting the fact that I had to milk the goats on the day of my senior prom. Meanwhile, the other girls in my class were primping and preening at the local beauty salon. My mom is a masterful gardener so we definitely benefited from the ‘fruits of the land’. We had bountiful vegetable, herb and flower gardens, as well as fig, apricot, peach, apple, plum, pomegranate and loquat[3] trees. We harvested blue corn which my dad used to make absolutely everything with, including chocolate chip cookies, pancakes, and pie. It was simple living at its finest.

What did your parents do for work?
They worked for a local rafting company until the river was dammed. Then, my mom took a job as a retail store manager and my dad became a “self-employed goat herder.”

Do you have childhood memories of summer camps or traveling with your family?
We had an old Bluebird school bus which my dad painted blue and silver. We[4] took a trip to Oregon one summer because my dad was on a quest to find some “sacred rock.” We never found the rock but I do have some good memories from that trip.[5] When I was in high school, we began making semiannual trips to Big Mountain, a Navajo reservation in Arizona, to deliver food and clothing to the elders. I never went to camp but, when I was sixteen years old, I spent a month in Siberia without my family. The highlight of my trip was the fact that I took a dip in Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake in the world. Luckily, it was summertime!

Where did you go to college?
I went to Willamette University (rhymes with “dammit”) in Oregon, a small, private liberal arts college with a beautiful campus. It turned out to be a perfect fit.

Did you study abroad?
Yes, I somehow managed to catch the travel bug during my stint in Siberia.[6] So, after high school, I headed down to Honduras where I lived with a host family on a six-month AFS[7] exchange. I was a Spanish major in college so it made perfect sense for me to spend my junior year in South America. I spent the fall semester in Ecuador during which time I was fortunate enough to visit the Galápagos Islands—amazing. Then, I journeyed further south to study Chilean poetry and literature during the spring semester. After college, I traveled to Japan with my best friend and taught English for a year.

Why are you here?
I moved to Boston on a whim in October of 2000. Then I fell in love with my very own Bostonian—Brian—and decided to stay. I worked for four years with the International Institute of Boston, a nonprofit refugee resettlement agency. When I was offered a position with the Core in the spring of 2005, I jumped at the chance to work in higher education. It’s such a great environment; I truly love being surrounded by all this intellect and energy. Now, I’m earning an MBA while working full time.

What are your plans for the future?
Well, let’s see… I’ll finish my degree in May 2008. Oh, and my fiancé and I are planning an intimate destination wedding for next year. Life is good! DI

1. …and not-so-pleasant memories of traipsing to the outhouse in the middle of the night.
2: Since he did not have a car, he had to cut his kayak in half to take it on the bus. He then glued it back together when he arrived at the trials. This is the same guy who accepted avocado sandwiches as payment for his expert stonework around our fireplace.
3: Eriobotrya japonica, an evergreen tree bearing kumquat-like fruit, native to China.
4: That is, my parents, my brother, my two sisters, our Boston terrier Chief, and I.
5: Well, not really. For whatever reason, my dad always got a toothache or a backache when we went on trips. He may very well be allergic to the external world.
6: I say “somehow” because for my first time abroad, it really was not the best experience. My host family declared the city of Irkutsk too dangerous for sightseeing and sequestered me in their tiny, dreary flat. When we did leave the house, I really did think I was going to die—it wasn’t that the city was a scary place, but rather that my host father turned into a sweaty beast when he got behind the steering wheel. My insistence on wearing a seatbelt seemed to deeply offend the family (but I kept the belt on). Also, on the way over, my jeans were stolen from my suitcase so I had to wear one pair of leggings during the entire stay—a minor annoyance compared to the deep-seated corruption then prevalent in post-Communist Russia, but it certainly seemed tragic to my sixteen-year-old sensibilities.
7: American Field Service Intercultural Programs.