Growing up I wanted to be an architect, but after my first semester of architecture school I quickly realized this was not my passion. I moved back to Florida to continue my education at University of North Florida, and around that time I had my wisdom teeth removed with an excellent and compassionate oral surgeon here in Jacksonville.  This positive experience planted the seed, so to speak.  A few months after that I had my hygiene visit with my general dentist who I had been going to since I was a kid.  My sweet hygienist Shirley encouraged me to look into dentistry for a career.  Then just a few weeks after that, I met Marco, who would later become my husband and office manager.  At the time he was studying biology with plans to apply to dental school, and suggested I consider that too because I loved art and science.  It seemed the universe was trying to tell me that dentistry is where I belonged!  During my undergrad years at UNF I was able to shadow at different practices in town and better understand the field. I shadowed general dentists and some specialists which gave me the opportunity to learn more about the different aspects of dentistry. Ultimately, I decided to pursue dentistry not only because it is a great combination of science and art, but also because caring for people and being able to help others smile brings me so much happiness.