Who am I? That’s a ques­tion I could have answered more eas­ily a few months ago, or at least would like to pre­tend that I could have. Things change, peo­ple change, and as a whole, life changes. Right now, I’m not really sure who the real me is. When I find out, I’ll pass it on, but I think that’s a trial I’ve just began. So far, it’s been a pretty tough and wild ride, but I’m hang­ing in there. There are the con­stants in my life that I would never change. My name is Danni Jean, just Danni to those who know me. A select few are allowed to call me by my true moniker, Nerd. I’m a young woman in my mid-twenties who was born and raised in rural Okla­homa, and that’s where my heart and soul will remain. I went to col­lege for a bit and majored in Eng­lish Lit and Cre­ative Writ­ing with every inten­tion of becom­ing an Eng­lish teacher. But life has sur­prises in store for every­one, and along came the best thing that ever hap­pened to me. Enter Riley Ann, my life and breath. She recently turned four August of 2009. She is a wild fire that shows no signs of burn­ing her self out. She lives in a world of lim­it­less imag­i­na­tion and is not afraid to embrace life head. We both had a rocky time upon her entry into the world, but we sur­vived and have been joined at the heart ever since. We are pos­si­bly fac­ing tough times again with her health, but I have faith that God’s love will see us through. That is another con­stant in my life, God’s love. I’m not per­fect, and the Lord knows I have sinned, but I’m learn­ing to place my faith in His hands. He’s got­ten me this far, now it’s my turn to return the love. It’s a daily strug­gle, being stub­born by nature, but I’m learn­ing to put it in His hands. Even though I lacked only one year in com­plet­ing col­lege when Ri was born, I decided I wasn’t sure about my cho­sen career path. Some­how, I ended up work­ing as a paraoptometric/clinician in an thriv­ing optom­e­try prac­tice. I’ve stuck with it, and I love it. In the four short years that I’ve done it, I’ve obtained the high­est level of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in my pro­fes­sion with­out actu­ally becom­ing a doc­tor. Maybe in the future. Now is not the time, too many dis­trac­tions and I want to savor every moment of Ri’s child­hood. This time is about her. I don’t want to miss one sin­gle moment, be it a gig­gle or a tear. In August of 2009, the future that I had planned for my fam­ily changed. Hal­loween 2009 would have been the five year anniver­sary of Ri’s daddy, Grant, and I. We’ve known each other for twice that amount of time, at least. A part of my heart will always belong to him. We have a child together and we are still good friends. But we are dif­fer­ent peo­ple with dif­fer­ent opin­ions on life right now. There are times when it’s hard to remem­ber why we went out seper­ate ways, but on the same hand, there are times when we can’t even stand the sight of each other. It has it’s ups and downs. We are learn­ing and grow­ing and just try­ing to be there for Ri the best we can. I’ve decided that before I can love some­one, or be of any worth to them, I have to find out who I am again, and begin to love and embrace what I find. I have a feel­ing I’m in for a long and bumpy ride, but that’s part of the fun, right? I have my moments of weak­ness and I have days where I am on top of the world. Right now, every­thing is a frenzy, a sen­sory over­load if you will. Things I had for­got­ten and peo­ple that I had for­got­ten. I’m almost manic in my reac­tions and moods, but I’m begin­ning to find the calm median. At least, that’s what I keep telling my self. I’m on of those peo­ple who has to cre­ate and express myself. Writ­ing, draw­ing, singing, pho­tog­ra­phy, or any­thing else that makes me feel free. These days it’s mainly pho­tog­ra­phy. I carry a cam­era bag instead of a purse. I do free-lance for extra money, but it’s mainly because I love it. If you would like to see some of my work, ..you can go here... If you want pic­tures, just ask and I’ll prob­a­bly be more than eager. I’ve had a blog/website for over 10 yrs now. It’s cur­rently down, but I hope to open it back up shortly. Time and money being the key com­po­nents that are miss­ing. So, now you know more about me that you did. It’s quite a bit, but far from all of it. I doubt it, but if there is any­thing else you would like to know, feel free to con­tact me. I’m pretty open to meet­ing new peo­ple. I’ll just give you warn­ing that I’m some­what shy, so don’t be offended if it takes me a while to warm up.