In 1973 my family moved to Okinawa, Japan. Naturally, I didn't want to go! It's excruciating to leave when you're fifteen and have best friends. My mom, Karen, did her best to smooth things over but we were seriously unhappy. Fortunately for us, Okinawa turned out to be an incredible place to live.

On Okinawa, I attended Kubasaki High School. My brother, sister and I were cloistered on that small island so we were kept away from many of the influences we might have encountered had we lived in the States. The only outlet I had during that time was school so I made the most of it. I was very involved in extracurricular activities and participated in everything from student council to cheerleading. I never felt particularly popular in high school, but my involvement made me fairly well-known.

We left Okinawa three days after my graduation in 1976.

It took a lot of adjustment being back in the States. I spent a year working a series of odd jobs before entering the University of Oregon. My new roommate was a sorority girl and I feared we'd never get along. Ironically, I ended up pledging the Alpha Xi chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta during my freshman year and things began to get fun again. I became a little sister for our brother fraternity, the Pikes. I majored in Fine Art and was later accepted into the Journalism School to major in Advertising, too. I had a plan to double major in art and journalism so I could put together a portfolio and get a creative job when I graduated.

I attended the University of Oregon for two and a half years before moving to North Carolina to be with my boyfriend from high school, Scott Qualls. He was attending East Carolina University and I was tired of just writing to him. We were married in the summer of 1981. My sorority-girl college roommate from Oregon was my maid of honor. I entered ECU myself just four days after the ceremony and received my BFA degree in Communication Arts from East Carolina University's School of Art in 1983.