Find Your Outlet So You Can Find Your Full Potential

I have been offroading, riding quads, wakeboarding, camping, and doing pretty much anything outside most of my life. But my real story begins when I was 16 when my mother had passed away.  A lot of changes happened in my life, and a lot of bad things happened to me all at one time and it was a slippery slope for months. I was in and out of shelters, safe houses, Juvenile hall, and my biological dad’s clutches, which was not a good thing. I was finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, when this church family found me and adopted me. My adoptive father was really into building Jeeps and restoring cars as a hobby, and he let me help him. He taught me how to drive manual for the first time off-roading. He taught me how to change a tire and how to put his Jeep back together after crawling. He provided an outlet for me to cope and that has always been Jeeping, and getting my hands dirty. We would go to Ultra4 events and King of the Hammers, explore Big Bear trails, and a lot of different trails in California. He taught me to pull a line and how to do it safely, and how to maneuver on the trail, and he taught me how to spot. It was something we did almost every weekend.

This family helped me keeps my grades up so that I did not have to repeat any years because of my circumstances. They also helped my get into an amazing college which I then graduated from. I graduated with my Bachelors of Business from Azusa Pacific University. While I was in College I enlisted into the Army, then I joined an ROTC Program at APU, so when I graduated I had also Commissioned into the Army as an Army Officer as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Medical Corps in 2012. I continued taking Graduate Classes at Azusa Pacific University.

After I graduated, I started another program at American Career College for Surgical Tech and received my Certification and my associates into that field. I am currently working as a Surgical Tech at Ridgecrest Regional Hospital. In the Army, I am a Patient Administration Officer and have been a commander of a Multifunctional Medical Battalion Headquarters. I am and have been a Platoon Leader for different Units including a Ground Ambulance Company. I have accomplished so much before I turned thirty, and it all because I had an outlet that calmed me and focused me, and that was offroading.

When I hit my 20s I was able to buy my own Jeep, a new Blue 2010 two door Jeep wrangler sport, named Dory. Through the years, I upgraded Dory building her with my dad to match his TJ, except my Jeep was blue. I joined an off-road club called the Misfits that my dad was a part of. I volunteered for a nonprofit called 4Wheel2Heal, where we would take wounded and disabled veterans offroading. We called it offroad therapy. One of the years I was volunteering at King of the Hammers, I met my husband. My Buddy Abe, who I met through my dad (they were friends), whom I would volunteer with each year, he introduced us on one of the muddiest nights, stormiest nights. I dragged mud into my now husband’s toy hauler and asked for a beer and that was that. We would hang out every night around the bonfire and we have been together ever since. My husband races Ultra4 stock class for him and his twin brother’s team called Poor Boy Racing, 4696 and loves it. Every race my husband races in, I am there cheering him on. One of the races I even got to co-drive with him in Sacramento. It was such a blast.

My husband and I had twins, a boy and a girl, so we upgraded Dory to a 4 door Jeep wrangler Rubicon, called Poppy. We wrapped her in a Tiffany blue color, my favorite color. We are now a part of an off road organization and family called Vamped Off-road. We are continually building poppy, so that we can take our kids crawling. We do trips like Calico, Johnson Valley, Big Bear, Cerro Gordo, and Panamint Valley, and so much more whenever we can. It continues to be my outlet and is something I have always loved. God has blessed me with a husband and a family that love the same things I do. My family loves off-roading and being in the desert, camping and exploring. We got our kids matching Jeeps like their dad’s race car so they can be just like him, and play in the dirt. My next step is try to get our dogs to come out with us when we trail ride so that they can love it too, but that is after the kids are little bit older so I don’t have my hands completely full.