I grew up in the small town of Belmont, North Carolina so it was rather predictable that I ended up going to a small woman’s college in Raleigh called Peace College. To my own surprise, I had an amazing four years at this school where I got to be the student body president, captain of the tennis team, member of the theatre, and parliamentarian of fun. Hey, somebody’s got to do it! I even had an internship with one of the city’s most popular morning radio shows. Yes, that would have been the year I was sprayed with a fire hose while laying on a dolly. However, what was to come at the end of my college experience was something that even I could have not foreseen.

I had the opportunity to be the student speaker at my graduation and it just so happened that the commencement speaker was an actress from “CSI: Miami.” While waiting for the rain to stop so that our outside ceremony could begin, she and I found a connection in sharing how much our grandmothers’ presence would be missed. My speech went off without a hitch, the actress told me to contact her if I ever needed anything, but still the nervousness of not knowing my future soon set in. After all, I had always wanted something bigger, but I didn’t know how to find it. Was this a sign?

A month later this actress and I ended up chatting on the phone about the possibility of me being her personal assistant in Los Angeles. I had already made plans to live in Sevilla, Spain for a year so I asked to put the job on hold, which some called me crazy for doing, but I had come to realize that fate was on my side. Not long after, I naively arrived in Spain with too much luggage and not enough Spanish. Go figure! I ended up teaching English, studying Spanish, and backpacking through 13 countries. The experience proved to be one of the most challenging and rewarding things I had ever done. Most importantly, though, I discovered the European hidden treasure – Nutella!

When I returned home, my mom and I drove cross-country to L.A. There I was, in one of the world’s largest cities with a maxed out $250 credit card (it’s all I could get at the time) and only $25 in my pocket. Scared doesn’t even begin to describe how I was feeling. Luckily, a few days later I got a job selling jewelry at a cart in the mall to hold me over until my real job started.

Not long into performing the mundane tasks of being an assistant, I was offered a part-time job for the LA Daily News by a friend of my boss’ who heard I could write. How could I turn down the chance to cover a Hollywood movie premiere once a week when my biggest duty thus far involved picking up dry cleaning? From that day on, I spent a year-and-a-half trying to juggle both worlds, but failed miserably. I learned the hard (a.k.a. “Hollywood”) way that even though fate had brought me this assistant job, it didn’t intend for me to stay.

I certainly had never imagined a career as a journalist, but the life of a writer has proven to be a whole heck of a lot more fulfilling. I’m now writing full-time for Beck/Smith, whose syndicated column appears in over 100 newspapers nationwide. Every week I'm going to some event or movie premiere, interviewing an actor I've long admired, or talking with some prick who thinks he's too cool for school. It's pretty awesome. I've also met so many amazing people in the last year that I can't imagine living anywhere else.

During my free time, I take improv classes at the renowned Groundlings school, which boasts such alumni as Will Ferrell, Lisa Kudrow, and Phil Hartman. My hope is to be performing comedy at some point on the side, be it with the Groundlings or some other unforeseen group – just as long as I’m getting the chance to make people laugh. In the meantime, I’m having a blast living life to the fullest. I still don’t know what the future has in store, but this time around, I’m not worried about it. After all, I’ve got fate on my side.