How did I get to be your blonde blogger?

Well first things first I’m a natural blonde. And yes I’m pretty sure I have more fun and I sure do have some blonde moments.

I’m originally from a small town in Central Maine of about 800 people. I grew up on a lake with a 1/4 mile dirt driveway. The cable company wouldn’t serve my house, so until we got satellite when I was 14 I watched a lot of PBS and VHS recordings that my grandma would send of Nickelodian shows. So you could say it was rural. Even so it was an amazing place to grow up, and I had the whole woods and lake as my backyard. But I was a city girl at heart, and had always wanted a sidewalk, so when it came time to go to college I booked it to Boston.

As soon as I moved into the dorms I knew it was the right choice for me. I’ve lived in Boston ever since, with a short stint in Berlin for study abroad and New York City. We can get into the great Boston vs New York debate at another time, and I do love both for different reasons, but at the moment Boston makes the most sense for me.

In highschool I had been a dancer and had done it all, ballet, tap, jazz, etc. I was dancing about 4 nights a week by the time I was a senior. When I got to college I found out that studying architecture meant I would be in the studio 4+ nights a week instead. So I tossed in the towel on dance and took up model making and CAD drawing. 5 years later when I graduated, my hard work in college had paid off and I felt like my 5 years of a sedentary lifestyle were very apparent.

I came out of college while the recession was still in full swing. No architecture firms were hiring so I picked up and moved to New York to work full time for a shoe company that I had worked for during grad school. I recently looked at a folder on my computer called “jobs 2010” and there are probably 30+ cover letters in there that I sent out over the course of 8 months. Everything from selling furs to door hardware, and I tried to be the first to send stuff to any architecture posting I’d find. By some miracle I got a linkedin request from an HR manager at a company I had interned at in college. Within three weeks I had picked up and moved back to Boston.

Now I’m living the city life with my boyfriend, my exchange sister and two adorable kitties. I’m trying to figure out the right balance of work, fun, fitness, and studying for 7 architectural exams, among other hobbies and sleep. (Actually sleeping is one of my favorite hobbies!) You can follow along on this adventure, and here’s to hoping I have more success than failures.

-M