The Decision

 Sometime in 2019 my youngest of five kids up and decided to start preschool. It was precipitous for myself and Brett, because we couldn't quite afford private preschool or even public preschool for that matter. However, he had a speech impediment (an adorable one at that), and so we had him tested, and he was enrolled in free public preschool with speech therapy.

Half of my stay-at-home mom day was suddenly available. Something I had waited for for 14 years. I could FINALLY go back to college.

It was something I had always planned on doing: raise all the babies, get them all in school, and then go back myself. But what did I even want to study?

Originally, back in the before-fore times, I was going to school to major in English. This is laughable now considering the direction I ended up taking. I reached out to a friend of mine who is extremely educated, and she gave me some excellent advice.

"You know that patriarchal blessing thing you have," she asked, in response to my question about what degree I ought to choose.

"I do..."

"Ok, grab that. You're going to make a mind map on two sides of paper. On one side, after reading it, write down all the spiritual words that come to mind. And on the other side, write down all the temporal words that come to mind. Then see if you have any inspiration."

Such excellent advice! I said a prayer and got to work. It didn't take long for a picture to begin forming. One the spiritual side, the overhwelming word taking form was "family history", and on the flip side, "forensics". 

At the time, in 2019, I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but I did know that I loved watching true crime dramas, that I was fascinated bordering obsessed with genetics, and I loved family history. Not too long after this little exercise, I watched an amazing documentary called, "I'll Be Gone in the Dark", about the Golden State Killer and how they finally managed to catch him: forensic genetic genealogy. My two words came crashing together with a finality that brought me great peace and thrill of excitement I hadn't felt in over a decade. It could be no coincidence, I had found my calling.

This is where my journey really begins.