Biography

My parents were born up North, despite their best efforts to convince me otherwise. My dad is from Virginia, which I realize is technically in the South, and my mom is from Indiana. My dad was just a bit too close to Washington D.C to be considered a southerner by someone who spent their whole life around Atlanta, Georgia. His father was an economist, with a doctorate degree and a published paper to prove it. This probably led to his slightly more formal upbringing than my mom. My mom has said about her family, “they are rednecks, they just don’t know it.” It has always been incredibly entertaining to see my Midwestern relatives at our “weenie roasts” throwing tomahawks and driving tractors.

This blend of the formal and slightly crazy has made me who I am today. I can appreciate the visits to the capitol while still want to try out my uncle’s new bow. My parents characters did not match that of their family, with my mom being scared of anything and everything, and my dad not exactly fitting the mold off the economists son. These two personalities and families came together in perfect harmony.

My parents met in a singles group for their church. My dad had moved to Georgia for graduate school and my mom had lived here since she was a kid, moving because her dad was transferred. Half of the group ended up married and still remain close friends. One couple has been like a second family to me and my two sisters. Their children are close to our age, so we all get along really well. They live right by the pool, so we would always go to their house then walk to the pool together. My twin sister, Meredith, and their son Nick would run off and play catch, while me and their youngest, Jewel, would swim around, laughing in the water.

When my mom was pregnant with me and my twin sister, they believed that one of us was going to be a boy. They decided they were going to name us Meredith and Micheal since they already had my sister Madison and wanted to keep the “M” going. Luckily they found out it was two girls before we were born, so they had some time to prepare, and they had all pink instead of half pink half blue. They tried to think of another girl’s name that starts with an “M”, but they did not like any of them, so they finally landed on Shauna, after a friend of my mom.

Family shapes our lives. It determines where we are from, who we know, and a good portion of what we think. My parents upbringing determined how they raised me. Their decision to join the singles group is the reason they got married and had me. The singles group brought some of my closest friends together. It has shaped my life that I have been able to share every moment with my twin. It has shown me that two minds are better than one, and it is okay to sometimes need some help.