About Me
My Journey
My path here was anything but straight. This did not start with a passion or a plan. Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I was a stay at home mom going through a divorce with two small boys and $250 a month to my name. That was it. That was what I had to figure out how to live on. I did not have time to think about what I wanted to do with my life. I had to figure out how to keep the lights on that month.
So I started a cleaning business. Not because it was my dream but because I could start it immediately. Cold calls, Facebook groups, showing up and doing the work. What started as just me scrubbing houses turned into employees, training programs, SOPs, financials, a real operation that I built and ran from the ground up. It kept us afloat. It kept us together. And it taught me more about discipline, business, and people than anything else ever has.
I am not embarrassed by any of it. That chapter made me who I am.
When my boys started high school and began finding their independence, something shifted in me. If you are a mom you probably know exactly what I mean. The house gets a little quieter. You are still needed but differently. That space that opens up is equal parts freeing and heartbreaking. I decided it was time to figure out what I wanted.
I went back to school, got my AA, and worked as a long term substitute teacher and TA. I did the lesson plans, the paperwork, the IEPs. I loved those kids deeply. But somewhere in the middle of all of it I realized that as much as I cared, this was not my forever.
So I kept searching. I wanted something that could work around my life. I still have a son who homeschools, one in a physical school, extracurriculars, a full garden, and a life that does not pause. Going to a campus 45 minutes away was not the answer. So I searched, I read, I experimented. I stumbled onto copywriting, which led me to technical writing, which led me to Writing for STEM and grant writing and a feeling I had never had before. I was not just interested. I was fascinated. I did not get bored. I kept ordering books, kept taking classes, kept writing just because I wanted to.
Turns out that is what it feels like when you find your thing.
Why Does Unfiltered Biology Exist?
This one is personal.
My son has ADHD and Autism. I won’t tell his story here because it’s his to tell. But I will tell mine. I spent more days than I can count crying, feeling helpless, feeling like I was failing him, not because I wasn’t trying but because the information and support that should have been there simply wasn’t. I was redirected by doctor’s offices more times than I can count. Consistently given information that made no sense. I felt completely left to figure it out alone.
Then my eyesight went. It happened fast. Within about two days I was nearly completely blind in one eye, just black, and severely blurred in the other. I could not drive. I could not see my children’s faces. After months of being in the dark, seeing specialists every couple of weeks, including one who flew down from Maine regularly to see me, I was eventually diagnosed with something called MEWDS, a rare condition. It took about five to six months but my vision came back. I was told it was a one time thing, that I was good, that the chances of it happening again were so slim it was not worth worrying about.
Two years later something started happening again but it didn’t look the same. It was more gradual this time. The tops of words and sentences just disappeared. Not black, not blurry, just gone, like they had never been there at all. I didn’t even recognize it as the same thing at first. I went through neurologists, specialists, test after test. Eventually my specialist confirmed it was in fact a second round of MEWDS. I still don’t have a full explanation to this day.
I know what it feels like to sit in a waiting room desperate for answers and leave with more questions than you came in with.
I also know what it feels like to be dismissed. To be made to feel like you are overreacting or looking for attention when you are just trying to understand what is happening in your own body.
That is why Unfiltered Biology exists.
Beyond the Pages
When I am not writing you’ll find me in the garden, deep in a book, or on the phone with my sister who has an absolutely unhinged number of life questions. This is the part of me that lives beyond the pages.
My husband and I grow our own food. We can it, dehydrate it, save seeds, make tinctures. There is something about the whole process from planting to preserving that is incredibly satisfying in a way that is hard to put into words. Plants fascinate me. The science behind them, the history, the way people have used them for centuries. It fits right in with everything else I love.
I also read. A lot. My TBR pile is frankly out of control and I have zero regrets about it. If I ever start posting book reviews consider yourself warned because I will be brutally honest. Not every book gets five stars from me just because it’s popular.
And then there is my sister. My husband is my soulmate in the way that we are matched and I want to spend the rest of my life with him but I believe you can have more than one kind of soulmate. She is my other half. One of the best things about her is her chaotic brain, which I love very much. She calls me regularly with the most hilariously random life questions I have ever heard and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
That is kind of the whole point of this site.
Don’t Be A Stranger
Whether you are a researcher who needs their work to reach people, or someone who just has a question that has been living rent free in your brain, there is a place for you here. Come say hi.
The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. I am a technical communicator and science writer, not a medical professional, dedicated to making complex research accessible to everyone.
