Hi, everyone!
My name is Kylie, and I’m excited to join the Mid-Michigan Moms Blog contributor team. I’m a new mom and it’s been the most wonderful and challenging season of my life. I’m looking forward to connecting with and getting to know everyone.
I grew up in Capac, a tiny town in the thumb of Michigan {which stands for Cows And Pigs And Chickens and is also a palindrome!}. Some people speak poorly of the small towns they were raised in. I, on the other hand, attribute many of my opportunities to being raised in a small, tight-knit community which truly cared for and treated me as one of their own.
Small Town Girl Moves to the Big City
In the fall of 2007, I went to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan. I still get emotional thinking about watching my parents drive away through the window of my 10×12 foot dorm room. I knew I was a tiny fish in a big pond, and would soon learn that others would not return my smile and “hello!” on the sidewalk as they did at home. It was an extremely exciting time of my life, but at the same time, very scary. I went from being at the top of my class to being humbled by pre-med weeder courses. I pushed to finish in 2.5 years and graduated in 2010 with my Bachelor of Science in Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science with a concentration on Pre-Health.
Small Town Girl Moves to the Even Bigger City
The summer after graduation, I returned to my beloved high school and summer college job at Hulett Farms and Greenhouse in Port Huron {they have the best corn around!}. I took the MCAT, applied to medical school, and the waiting game began. The farm market closed down for the season on Halloween, so I knew I would need to secure employment for the winter and spring, when medical school decisions are released. I tried to best highlight my achievements and skills and put my best foot forward in a then-dismal job market. To my surprise and excitement, I was contacted for an interview at a Detroit-based health plan. I had only been to Detroit a few times and had never gone alone. The interview was challenging yet fun, and the next day, I accepted a job offer with a start date 12-hours after I returned from an international trip with my grandma. I moved into an apartment near work that my mom helped me find and went to work in an even bigger pond. This was the beginning of a career in healthcare I never imagined possible. I would learn six months later that I did not get into medical school, but by that time I knew I was where I was meant to be.
Small Town Girl Becomes a Wife and Mama
Fast-forward ten years to now and the most wonderful, important, and challenging roles of my life: that of Wife and Mama. In October 2017, my husband, Michael, and I met online. It was instant chemistry, and though we were both faced with heavy situations in our personal lives, we continued to see and make time for each other. In February 2018, we learned we were expecting. Both sets of parents had only met us once, and welcomed the news with supporting and loving arms. We decided to get married six weeks later, in April 2018, and moved in together. Two weeks after our wedding, Michael had back surgery. In May, I received news that I had been laid off from my job. With a lot of life lived in between and afterward, we chose each other and pushed through with what we call “moxy.”
We welcomed our beloved Antonella {Ella} in October 2018. She is the most spirited, strong, passionate, and bright-shining light I have ever known. I have been fortunate to spend these first months with her at home, exactly where I’m meant to be in this season. It may sound cliché, but I’m amazed every day at what this tiny little human, so full of life, love, and wonder, is learning, doing, and sharing with us.
As a family, we enjoy seeing our family and friends, endurance running and biking, traveling to different places in northern Michigan, cooking and enjoying unique dishes, going to concerts, board games, and home improvement projects. It’s been a lot of fun sharing some of these favorite things with our sweet Ellabug.
I am excited to get to know you better, to share more of my experiences through this early journey of motherhood, and to learn from you.
-Kylie
♥️♥️♥️