Are you there, Steemit? It's me, MelissaSaidSo.

Is there ever really a good place to start with these introductory posts?

I could tell you about my childhood, growing up in the shadow of NYC... dreams of being on Broadway... learning Spanish before English... growing up at the intersection of musical theatre and early 90's hip-hop... being that nerdy kid who probably got along better with teachers and other adults than I did my classmates... operating under the innocent (naive?) assumption that the beautiful diversity that surrounded me would be as normal and comforting to everyone I would meet in my life as it was to little me.

Perhaps High School is a better starting point. It was the time when I finally felt like I'd found "my people" - the time when my eccentricities didn't make me a caricature, but rather made me a valued individual. From embracing comedic performance to accepting that just maybe my Type-A personality could drive me to overload, I definitely embraced those four years that so many people try to forget.

College had its share of stories built in, as I was the master of the extra-curricular activity. I held down jobs both on campus and on breaks (if you called Rutgers Information between the years of 98-02, odds were high you'd get me on the line). I volunteered for orientation activities, competed on the intercollegiate ballroom dance circuit, sang with a gospel choir, and a cappella group, and a salsa band, and (of course) did my requisite musicals. And yes, I did manage to make it to class on occasion.

Or it might be best to just jump into my adult world. I've had the opportunity to work for an internet startup during the boom, then work for another that laid off 90% of its staff because the VCs funding it demanded a re-working. I was laid off twice during that economic downturn in the late 00's, but survived and never went too long before digging up another opportunity. I bounced (with my other half, who I met in '07) between NJ, NC, back to NJ, back to NC (dizzying, no?), and now to GA.

I guess any one of those would do, really.

Presently, I'm a wife... a dog-mom... working toward being a human-mom... and an advisor to students working toward a major professional designation. I identify as somewhere between Democrat and Libertarian, presently living in Trump-country in this bizarre space and time we call 2016.

I look forward to adding to the conversations here... nice to meet you.

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