About Me

What can I say really, other than I am a girl on a mission with a lot to live for.

Hi, I’m Shay, and I live in the number one tourism sector along the South Carolina coast.

I graduated from Coastal Carolina University in 2014 with a Bachelors of Science in Conservation Ecology, followed by a Masters of Education in Environmental Education from Concordia University in 2017.

I have a huge passion for wildlife and the great outdoors, but those joys came with a multi million dollar price tag…

Cancer.

But more on that later.

Being in a tourist town, jobs were hard to come by in the off season. Because of this, I’ve bounced through so many jobs over the years. Everything from retail to food and beverage, entertainment to attractions, there wasn’t a seasonal industry job I was not associated with.

When I finally landed my dream job right out of college, I thought I was finally where I was supposed to be in life. But after five years of being severely underpaid and struggling to make end meet, being belittled and berated, and exposed to things nobody in my position should be exposed to, I finally left.

It was a devastating blow, as I was just in an accident and experiencing complications, lost my insurance, and struggling to make ends meet. But I continued to push myself to the near breaking point, until I couldn’t take it anymore. Sixteen months of chronic bronchitis with no true relief in site, I finally visited the emergency room.

After months of doctors visits, second opinions, tests, biopsies, and Covid complicating things, we learned I was advancing to stage four grey zone lymphoma. Six rounds of treatments at a 1:2 week ratio in the middle of a pandemic, only to relapse a few months after being in remission.

I’ve come to realize in that moment that life is short, and can end at any time. I don’t want to leave this world without my stories being told. Maybe it will inspire others to tell their own stories.