All About Mandy Lynn Luminais:
What can I say about myself? Well, I'll keep it short & sweet so I don't bore you too quickly. I'm a 28-year-old resident of Reserve, Louisiana in St. John the Baptist Parish. I've lived here most of my life, but I spent a few years in uptown and mid-city New Orleans while I earned my Bachelor's degree from the University of New Orleans. I majored in History & minored in Psychology & Spanish at UNO and also cheered for the UNO Privateer Cheerleading squad for a few years. I'm a total history buff! I absolutely love early American History & U.S. Urban History~those are my areas of specialty~as well as most of the other Social Sciences like Psychology, Physical & Cultural Anthropology, & Sociology. I simply love studying human behavior and plan on going back to graduate school & earning my Master's of Science in Counseling, with a concentration in Mental Health, sometime in the near future.
Recently, I was diagnosed with a severe heart condition, a viral cardiomyopathy, which literally means viral heart failure. The doctor's still aren't sure exactly what virus caused my heart to fail, but in all actuallity, it could have been any of 30 or more viruses that can cause one's heart to fail. It could have happened to anyone, but instead I hit the heart failure lottery this time! It's been an extremely difficult couple of months for both me & my family, but we somehow pulled through all of this. I've been blessed with the most amazing boyfriend on the planet, Mitchell, who has been taking care of me physically & emotionally for the past six months. I never used to believe in the cliche "Everything Happens for a Reason," but I finally realized that it's true. He came into my life just as my heart began to fail, and he has been by my side every step of the way. I don't know if I would have made it without him, my parents, my sister, and all of my wonderful friends. They really kept my hopes up through this difficult time and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for being there for me.
So, I'm taking some time off from teaching for a while~it's way too much stress on my heart. I really can't do much physical work either, so I'm stuck at home taking it easy for a while, or untill I fully recover from this. Thank goodness I have a couple of hobbies that don't require much physical stress. I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking lately as well as reading book after book after book. My friend Brandi got me hooked on the Paranormal genre, so check out my "Books & Music" page to see some of my reads. I'm a music fanatic~I listen mostly to rock, but I have a soft spot for a few motown classics, and yes, some rap and hip-hop. Make sure to take a look at my playlist on my "Music Page". And last but not least, I love animals. I have 9 pets~two dogs outside, two cats outside, two dogs inside, and three cats inside. They make me crazy but keep me sane at the same time. They're like my own children, haha. Well, that seems to wrap it up. Check out my pages which I've dedicated to enjoying the simple things in life~I've learned never to sweat the small things but to enjoy the present, because you never know which day will be your last.
Mandy L. Luminais
