I was going to spend all of my teenage days in the Sunshine State.

My dad, mom and I drove down south to Florida, and then my dad headed back to New York to continue his work at Brookdale Hospital in New York. They both wanted to make sure they would find new employment in Florida, but in the meantime, my dad kept his job of 20 years. My mom and I settled into a charming little house (the first house I've ever lived in) in an oceanside community, Sea Colony, located just north of Palm Coast in Flagler County, Florida. (Palm Coast was a community development of ITT back then, but today it is a city of its own.) We arrived in our new state the day before the first day of 8th grade in August 1989, so when I woke up the next morning, I found myself not only in a new home in a new state on the other side of the country, but I had to head straight to a new school. When I stepped out the front door, I was not breathing exhaust fumes from cars rushing by...I heard seagulls and the sound of crashing waves from the Atlantic Ocean one mile away. Instead of seeing tall buildings, I saw palm trees.

I attended Belle Terre (now Buddy Taylor) Middle School for 8th grade, battling Mono and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for half of the year, and then graduated in 1990, having done homeschooling/distance (independent) learning. I didn't get a chance to really make friends in this new school, and I felt isolated (and was) for most of that year. I had also left en entire lifetime behind me in New York with mixed feelings. But it was an awesome experience to live so close to the ocean, to be able to bike to the beach and watch the sun rise over the Atlantic. When I did attend classes, I rode a school bus that traveled north to Marineland on Highway A1A and picked up kids from the tiny seaside neighborhoods, hidden under and behind palms and brush, along the way. A lot of kids were surfers. It was altogether an incredibly different world from where I came from.

This was the type of community where North met South. There were quite a few New Yorkers in this part of Florida...as well as families from New Jersey and other Mid-Atlantic and New England states. I sensed that some of the native Floridians and folks from the South may or may not have been comfortable with the mass migration. But I appreciated this part of the world - any place along Highway A1A was beautiful to me; I absolutely loved the ocean. We went grocery shopping at Winn Dixie, Publix, or Food Lion, and this was the state where I first set foot in a Wal-Mart and a Target store (neither of which was found in Brooklyn). This was also where I ate grits and sausage gravy on biscuits for the first time! (Again, if the rest of America ate this too, Brooklyn did not!!) My favorite place to go and spend time was Flagler Beach. You haven't lived until you've walked the Pier and sat on this beach for an hour or two. For me, it was pure bliss to see lines of pelicans flying over me, mimicing the waves...again, it was nothing like I'd ever seen before.

While I lived in Sea Colony, I began seriously learning how to paint with oil paints and created several seascapes on canvases. For my 15th birthday, my mom let me have somewhat of a shopping spree at Ben Franklin's Arts and Crafts store in Ormond Beach. Then I studied Bob Ross's painting techniques and turned out one painting after another. It was some great therapy! I actually sold one to a couple vacationing in Florida from Massachusetts - an oil of a couple of seagulls flying over a coastline, with flowers in the foreground.

In the late summer of 1990, my dad rejoined us, and we moved into Palm Coast and the Woodlands neighborhood of Grand Haven. It was the most beautiful home I've ever lived in, a 2-story Tudor on top of a small hill. To this day, my parents still live in that house (and yes, they both found jobs - at the same hospital again, Memorial Hospital in Ormond Beach - doing pretty much what they did at Brookdale...and now my dad is retired and my mom is about to be, having worked as a traveling RD consultant for numerous nursing homes). I went to Flagler Palm Coast High School in Bunnell for four years. This is when I met and became best friends with Rebecca Robertson (see Friends). She rekindled my interest in pro-wrestling after I had stopped following it for almost 3 years, and she and these "men of the ring" made life fun from this point on. We went to the Orlando Arena together a couple of times, and I hit the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach to make some history on international television as well Modeling. Bekah (her nickname today, attached to a story involving one of the Legion of Doom members - see Friends) moved to Lakeland, Florida before 11th grade, so I only spent 2 years with her at FPC. We were able to see each other pretty regularly outside of school, though, when she would visit Flagler County on weekends.

During 11th grade, I formed memorable friendships and acquaintanceships with mostly seniors at FPC, but inevitably, they graduated and went off to college (I would have graduated in 1993 with them if I had started Kindergarten when I was 5!). Some of the nicest 12th graders I had gotten to know included Suzanne Hanger, Linda Sapienza, Mary Francis, Mason Brown, Bryce Myers, Suzanne Geiser and Tina Lin. In my own Senior year, I developed a great friendship with Karin Posser, who was in my own class - we were pretty much the academic types together, taking Physics and English Honors IV and taking our lunch breaks in our favorite teacher's office (Mr. James Kelly Bond, the guy who taught me World History Honors, Advanced Placement American History, and Conservative Republican values). She and I were co-captains of the FPC debate team, which I started with Mr. Bond.

Once again, as was the case in New York, the people who made the most impact on my life were my teachers and the people who worked in the high school's administration. I practically lived at FPC, so I knew and helped a number of the teachers, the coaches, the guidance counselors, the secretaries, the receptionists, the police officers. I know this didn't boost my popularity amongst the 17 and 18 year olds, but I wasn't interested in their cliques and couldn't relate to what they were into. So instead of being "in" with 100 kids, I had strong and stable relationships with 2 or 3, and the majority of the "grown-ups" who were some of the best people I've ever met.

I was also a member of the National Honor Society, the Future Educators of America, a few other clubs, and was the Class of '94's artist. I participated in the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Patriotic Art Contests and won first place locally for 3 years in a row, and entered and placed in a variety of other academic competitions such as school and regional science fairs and essay contests. I wrote and edited sections of FPCHS's newspaper, took vocational training for Office Support, and interned at the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce.

And to top it off, and possibly make matters better or worse (depending on your viewpoint), I also fully participated in a local professional wrestling event held in conjunction with the Flagler County Police Athletic League: I promoted it (this was when I began realizing there was a promoter/marketing skills in this girl) by writing articles for both the school, county, and Daytona Beach newspapers...hanging posters at the local gyms, schools, and bars...and writing and directing a television commercial for it, shown on Palm Cablevision and at the school. Then, on the night of the show, I assisted the wrestlers, put on a personna and acted the role of a valet and manager, signed autographs, came back out and functioned as a cameraman.

The highlight of senior year...among other things.

I graduated 8th in my class in May 1994 (look at this Flagler Palm Coast High School Alumni Site for the Class of '91 - it also has news on all the other classes, including mine!) . I had applied and gotten accepted to Florida State University, Georgia Tech, the University of South Florida in Tampa, Georgia State University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. After much debating between Minnesota and Georgia Tech, I left Florida in September to attend the U of M on a scholarship.

I sort of had some dreams about what I wanted to do, and who I might possibly meet, and the goals I wanted to accomplish. Some of these were school-related. But admittedly, after 19 years of an emphasis spent on being academic, I had some other ideas of things to do that I hadn't been able to do before...

Real life was going to begin in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

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