Living on Guam is what now "defines" me. It was such a dramatic difference in my life and outlook on things that there's no way I'd be the same if I had remained in New Mexico or any of the rest of the U.S. Mainland. I moved there after going through elementary school and junior high school in Montana and then in New Mexico. My high school years were spent on Guam--and during this time, my family also traveled to many Western Pacific and Asian destinations including Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, Okinawa, Taiwan, and most of the Micronesian islands. In high school on Guam, my interests in foreign languages, marine biology, journalism, photography, and alternate energy were first sparked.
I briefly attended New Mexico State University for a semester before returning to Guam to attend the University of Guam. I graduated with a B.A. degree in biology (with a chemistry minor). During my college years on Guam, I also supplemented my scholarship income by providing freelance writing and photography to the local newspaper and magazines.
One of the classes I took at the University of Guam while pursuing an M.S. in Biology was "Scientific and Technical Writing and Editing"... I did not realize at the time that this class would be setting the foundation for the rest of my working life. I found that I *love* words and fooling around with making them work as best as possible.
I also took classes in formal linguistics at the University of Guam--as well as classes in Japanese, Russian, Mandarin Chinese. These classes helped me to become comfortable with working with translations of technical material into English from other languages. As an editor, I help folks with making their words work for their particular audience.
After graduating from the University of Guam, I taught English grammar and composition at Bishop Baumgartner Junior High School in Sinajana, Guam, then moved to teach science and biology at John F. Kennedy Senior High School in Tumon, Guam.
I've always enjoyed teaching. I've since provided 2-years of instruction in basic Japanese and English grammar and composition for a private school here in California while also working as a full-time technical editor/writer for the likes of NASA, Livermore National Laboratory, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu Networking Communication, and other companies.