So far, the story goes a little something like this…
I was born and raised in Norman, OK. Like 90% of kids who grow up there, I got stuck in the trap of attending the University of Oklahoma because it was local and convenient. From 2001-2005 I worked towards completing my Bachelor of Arts in history with an English writing minor. I graduated in May 2005 without a clue as to what I would do next, so I bought a ticket to London Gatwick airport and traveled around England during the summer of 2005 hoping to find work, but mostly to find myself.
Unfortunately I found neither and had to come back to the states at the end of the summer when I ran out of money. I spent the next year living in Oklahoma City and working various jobs, not really taking any of them seriously. Beginning in 2006, my girlfriend started applying to grad school, was accepted to Pepperdine, and in July 2007, we moved to Los Angeles together.
We spent two years in Los Angeles. I worked at a private Jewish school/temple while she went to school. We made a lot of great friends through my work and her school, got hooked up with a kickball league, and joined a pizza club. We managed to make our life together work despite not having enough cash to go around and the general awfulness of Los Angeles in general. I proposed to my girlfriend in November 2006 and we were married in December 2007.
Our time in Los Angeles came to an end in May 2008, right after my wife graduated from Pepperdine. Work was nowhere to be found in Los Angeles, so she expanded her search to include cities in the midwest. She found a job in Kansas, so with no other leads or options, we packed up and headed back to the heartland.