My greatest purpose is my family & friends

In 2012, I left home for college at Eastern Illinois University, stepping into a season of independence that shaped everything that came after. I started out in nursing before transitioning into health administration, figuring things out as I went and learning how to navigate real life on my own—paying bills, managing responsibilities, and growing up in ways that felt both exciting and overwhelming. Photography wasn’t even on my radar yet, but people always were, and that thread quietly started weaving itself through everything I did.

By 2016, I had graduated with my bachelor’s degree in health administration and stepped into my first full-time role in outpatient rehab services at a hospital. It was my “real job,” the kind that felt like the start of adulthood, and it stretched me in ways I didn’t expect—especially in communication, empathy, and service. Somewhere in the middle of that season, I also met my husband, and life started to feel like it was building layers I couldn’t fully see yet. I remember my dad telling me, “the rest of your life,” when I was shopping for work clothes after getting hired at 22, and that line has stayed with me ever since.

Everything shifted in 2020. After being laid off during quarantine, I picked up my first camera and started exploring photography more seriously—almost out of necessity, but quickly out of passion. I booked my first elopement, took on countless portrait sessions (often for little to nothing), and slowly started to see what could be possible. That same year, I rescued my kitten, Mia, and also experienced the devastating loss of my dad—my biggest supporter, who believed in this dream before I fully did. Even in the heaviness, something new was beginning to grow.

By 2022, I was married and my photography business began to take real shape, moving from something I was trying into something I was building. I photographed engagement sessions, booked my first official wedding, and started to feel like this path was sustainable and real. Then in 2025, everything deepened again—my biggest year yet, but also one of my hardest. I faced unexpected health challenges and the loss of a miscarriage, and in the middle of it all, made the decision to leave my 9–5 to pursue photography full time. I also found healing in a new creative outlet, working part-time at a floral shop and greenhouse, where creating with my hands became its own kind of grounding and growth.