I was born in South Florida. I am and always will be a water baby.

I spent my childhood in the sand and amongst the waves. It's never left me. From stand-up paddleboarding, to surfing; I always find time for the ocean.

My favorite animal is an octopus. It's clever, resilient and adaptive. I like to think of myself as the same (just minus a few limbs). That's why I chose a purple octopus as my logo. The purple part is because that's the color of my hair.

In my senior year of undergrad, scuba diving happened to be an option for an elective, so, naturally, I took the class.

At the end of the classroom portion of the course, we were allowed to get our full Open Water certification over a weekend at Lake Rawlings in Virginia, which is a quarry with a lot of random wreckage at the bottom that is used for PADI training.

My college student budget didn't allow for much diving while I was in school, but now that I'm graduated and on the west coast, I'm actively looking for a diving buddy who'll go out to Monterey Bay and play with some otters with me.