Melissa has a variety of specialties, as she has had two careers now. The first career she held started by serving in the United States Army for several years, which upon completing she continued on working with the government for another five years. Recently she relocated, causing her to need to acquire a second career and she now works in the medical field as a medical records technician.
Melissa enjoys many creative pursuits, including painting, crafting, gardening, and writing. She paints with a variety of mediums, but her favorite is oils. Recently she taught herself to craft rope baskets and has gone into it with gusto. As far as gardening is concerned, Melissa is into self-sustained living and gardening is her newest adventure. Melissa has self published three children's books that she created from scratch using skills she learned in college studying Visual Communication.
Melissa attended Ferris State University for two years prior to enrolling at Grand Valley State University. She studied many other programs while at Ferris State University including Hospitality Management, Social Work, and Visual Communication to broaden her education.
When she enrolled at Grand Valley State University, Melissa took classes in Anthropology and Geology as well as those required for her Natural Resource Management Degree. Both Biology and Natural Resource Management soon became her primary interests and she fell in love with her class, Plants of The Great Lakes. In this class she was able to study and identify the trees of Western Michigan.
Melissa does well in classes that are both interactive and take her outdoors, in this way she finalized her degree at Grand Valley State University.
Melissa has written two articles on crafting. The first article is How To Craft A Rope Basket, while the second is Creating Book Art. Both subjects are near and dear to her heart as she has experience with both projects. Both require the use of a glue gun and both require having patience. Melissa found creating book art to be the most difficult as it meant tearing up one of her precious books, but she managed it and now has a beautiful work of art, and an article on it to prove it.
Melissa has been blogging for over two years. She has two blogs on topics that include writing, self-sufficient living, art, cooking, travel, as well as some journal-type entries. Blogging was the beginning of Melissa's love affair with writing and it has only grown in size since then. Melissa blogs on her personal experiences within these areas, including both her success and her failures.
Melissa writes articles on a variety of subjects as her education is rather broad and she has many interests. Her articles include pieces about her hobbies, gardening, and writing. She writes from both her perspective and the research she does on each project siting her sources appropriately. Melissa is writing more and more articles lately as she wants to improve her writing skills.
Melissa lost her sister in a tragic car accident and dealt with her grief by writing a memoir about their relationship. In the memoir she tells you a story of their childhood alternating with a story of the aftermath of the accident. Melissa was very grief ridden during this time period and her book expresses that grief in an emotional retelling of their lives.