I can't remember when I first became interested in anthropology. Growing up, my family hosted more than a dozen exchange students, and my two older brothers and I all participated in youth exchange after high school. I went to Thailand and it has become my second home. Perhaps those early cross-cultural experiences are what drew me to anthropology in college. My love for animals started young as well, as I grew up in a rural area and had pets and rode horses. So when I found a part of anthropology that combined these two passions, I fell in love! My life took a brief detour into the world of film and television production before I began my anthropological training in earnest, yet even then, I viewed the world through an anthropological lens.