Before and a little bit after Dublin’s diagnosis.

My hubby, Lucas Francisco Ochoa, and I met at Orange Coast College in the Speech and Debate team squad room. We were speech geek friends until we transferred to California State University, Long Beach and became LOVAS!

Together we traveled around the country performing for the CSULB Speech and Debate Team and became obsessed with all things performance and social justice. Then, I went to California State University, Los Angeles to pursue my Master’s Degree in Communication Studies and my hubby worked for the evil, yucky, backwards mortgage industry. Then, we got MAWWIED in a little Victorian House in Inglewood California (cause we gangsta like that)!

Shortly after, I started teaching at a few community colleges and my hubby was like “My wife’s got a sweet gig helping people. I want to do that to! (a.k.a. BITER!!)” He decided to pursue his Master’s Degree in Communication Studies too and after a few years of teaching part-time at community colleges all over Southern California, we both landed full-time careers at Saddleback College as Communication Studies Professors and Coaches of Saddleback College’s Nationally Ranked Speech and Debate Team. Somewhere between mine and his full-time hire, we had our first child Lily Blue, who is both severely sensitive and sarcastic and has been giving her parents and grandpa a run for their money since she was pulled out of my uterus.

Somewhere between getting pregnant and Dublin’s diagnosis, I pursued my Master’s Degree in Theatre at California State University, Los Angeles. AND a little bit after his diagnosis, perhaps motivated by need to learn how to properly breathe, I obtained my Yoga Certification at White Lotus in Santa Barbara. If you read our blog, you will find that all these qualifications inform my writing, my process, and my family’s approach in following our little autistic light.