What is your favorite thing about fall?
Halloween!  My family and I get way into it.  We go all out decorating our house.  Spooky lighting, animatronics, fog machines, people jumping out of bushes…It’s a whole production.

What made you want to become a teacher? What do you enjoy about the job?
I became a teacher because I love reading and talking about books, and I wanted to share that with others.  The part I enjoy about the job is being around students.  Every day is something different, and I really enjoy that.

If you could live a day inside the world of a novel, television show, or movie, what fiction would you live for a day and why?
I would love to live in the Bridgerton era.  I know that it is a show on Netflix but watching it made me eager to read the books.  The books are WAY better.  I think it would be fun to live in high society attending galas.

If you could be anything besides a teacher, what career would you want to pursue and why?
I have always wanted to own my own bakery.  I have taken a few master cake decorating classes and have made a few wedding cakes.  I am really getting into cookie decorating now.  It is something I have been working on lately.

If someone could go back in time and open your high school locker, what would they find?  
They would find a volleyball, some athletic tape, a pair of Doc Martins, and about 9 million hair scrunchies.  I was really athletic in high school.  I played volleyball and threw shot and discus in track.  I also helped out our school athletic trainer.  That is what made me pursue sports medicine in college.

What was your first job? What was it like? 
My first real job out of college was working as an athletic trainer at AthletiCo Physical Therapy.  It was an awesome job.  In the first two years I was there, I worked with Frank Thomas of the Chicago White Sox when he hurt his tricep muscle, The Chicago Fire, USA Track and Field, and I was able to travel with the USA Woman’s Soccer Team to a few tournaments in Texas.

What is a trend from when you were in high school that you thought was cool at the time but now just seems goofy?
The grunge phase.  We would wear concert t-shirts and flannels all of the time.  Now every time I see someone in a flannel I cringe.

If you could have one song play every time you entered a room, what song would play, and why?
First, this is amazing, and I would love to have entrance music…I wonder if I can make that happen in my classroom! Haha.   This is a hard one.  It would have to be something happy and upbeat: “Living La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin or “Wannabe” by The Spice Girls…maybe “Hey Ya” by Outkast.

What is your favorite smell? Why?
I love the smell of burning leaves.  It makes me think of fall and cool nights, which is one of my favorite things.  It also brings me back to my childhood and memories of my brother and me raking up leaves and jumping in them before we would have a big bonfire.