The Story
They called me Monkey before I could spell my name.
I have been climbing and jumping and throwing myself through space since before I had words for it. It was not a nickname anyone chose deliberately — it was simply what they observed.
I spent years as a gymnast. I was not exceptional at it. I was too tall for the apparatus — my feet would hit the floor on the uneven bars. I hated the vault. I showed up every single time anyway, because I have never been someone who walks away from something just because it is hard. What I did not know then is that those years were not wasted. They were preparation for a sport I had not found yet.
When I found cheerleading, something settled in me that had not been settled before. The height that had worked against me became an asset. The body awareness I had spent years building on the balance beam and the uneven bars transferred completely. I belonged here.
In March 2025, we won a competition in Nashville and earned a paid bid to the Cheerleading Worlds. We celebrated that win. We had earned our way in. Two months later in April 2025, we arrived at the Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando on Day 2 — the paid bid path, skipping Day 1 entirely. We arrived cold. Uncalibrated. Girls were crying before we took the floor. Falls. Errors. Last place. Coach Auggie watched everything from the side of that Orlando floor. He learned something no practice gym could teach. That floor — the same floor in Orlando — would define us again twelve months later.
I do not tell that story to impress anyone. I tell it because it is the most honest answer I have to the question of who I am. I am someone who prepares in the background. Who stays ready without being asked. Who is at her best when the stakes are real and the margin for error is zero.
I intend to bring that same quality to everything I pursue — in engineering, in research, and in whatever comes after that.
They still call me Monkey. It still fits.