Who am I?

I am Emma Garber, a Speech Pathology major at Western Michigan University. I have never made a blog before so this will be interesting. I'll start with some interesting facts about myself. First off, I have taken dance classes for 16 years, and plan to continue to do so. Not only have I danced for quite a long time, but I have also been greatly involved with theater, and was able to choreograph my first show over the summer. Also, I am allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, which can be a pain at times (yes, this means I cannot eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup). Finally, I spend a majority of my free time babysitting, which at times is quite hectic, but always interesting and fun. I have one younger sister who is currently a freshman in high school. She also shares a love of dance and theater, and we have been lucky enough to perform together on numerous occasions. My family overall is pretty close and is extremely important to me. 

I grew up with a science teacher father, who spent hours upon hours of time being outdoors. Due to the fact that my father had the summers off (Being a teacher and all), I was usually able to experience the outdoors with him, not only around our house but also at our cottage on Lake Huron. This gave me multiple opportunities to witness many aspects of nature and how the world I lived in functioned. At a young age I was able to understand how every ecosystem is a careful balance, and that minor changes can disrupt the entire thing. Due to constantly being on Lake Huron, it was quite clear how humans are altering the Earth, and not for the better. The beach surrounding the lake as well as the shallow areas of the lake, had extremely high concentrations of zebra mussels, which are quite painful to step on. These are an invasive species that are only in the great lakes due to human transportation. This is a still a major problem, and the condition of environment I live in is extremely important to me.


Anyway, my mother contrasted with my father quite nicely, being that she brought in the artistic and literature side of my current knowledge. I was given access to the best of both worlds essentially. She brought out a creative side in me, which led to my love for the outdoors based on its beauty, not only how it functions and survives. She loved to spend time outdoors as well, but usually not looking for snakes to catch. We would use leaves, or stones we collected on the beach to decorate art frames and just have fun. This still affected the environment, just usually not in a harmful way.

From both of my parents I gained a love of dance. It is still one of my greatest passions today. They actually met in a dance group, and raised me dancing as soon as I could stand. Now they never forced me to dance or anything like that, they just would turn on music, and let me do what I like. My parents always say that I would dance anywhere as long as there was music, and unfortunately there are plenty of embarrassing family videos to support that claim. I still dance, not as often as I use to or would like to, but it will always be a part of me.

So basically, that is some quick background information on myself, my family, and why this class was an interest to me. I am very excited to see what else this class has to offer and cannot wait to get started. Any questions can be left in the comment section, hopefully this was a bit interesting to read and that you have learned more about who I am as a person.