✦ The Beginning
School wasn't somewhere I went. It was home.
I grew up in the halls of an elementary school — literally. My mom worked there, and I spent my childhood cracking jokes with the principal and losing hours in the card catalog. While other kids counted down to summer, I was already looking forward to fall.
School wasn't something I survived. It was where I came alive. That feeling never left me — and it eventually became my life's work.
✦ Chapter One
I started with music, because music was my first love.
I began academia with a bachelor's in music education. I taught general music and band for four years at a Montessori school — underpaid and completely in my element. I also spent eight years at a health food store I genuinely loved, because passion rarely pays all the bills right away.
Getting a music teaching job is like waiting for a New York apartment: you have to catch the magic moment when the right door opens in the right spot. I was patient. I was watching.
Swap in: IMG_2889.jpeg
(beaded necklace photo)
Warm & personal mid-story moment
✦ The Pivot
A Monsanto joke. A handshake. A new plan.
Then leadership changed at the health food store. A new CEO thought it was funny to joke about sourcing from Monsanto. I stuck my hand out, said "Sir, it's been a pleasure working for you — but if you think that's funny, I'm not sure how long I'm going to stick around."
And I began planning my way out.
Rather than wait on the perfect music opening, I remembered that music had never been the only thing that fascinated me. I'd always loved the structure, the logic, the hidden beauty in mathematics. So I went back to school, earned my master's in mathematics education, and never looked back.
✦ Now
The more people I could reach, the better.
Since earning my master's, I've also become certified in special education — because I believe every learner deserves someone who actually knows how to reach them. Not a grad student. Not a test-prep algorithm. A real teacher who has taught the subject, who understands how different minds work, and who genuinely cares.
Flippin' Math exists because school should feel like home for everyone — not just the kids who already "get it." Math has a bad rap. We're here to flip that script.