This is real, this is me...

I'm Ashley, 18 years old.. I enjoy long walks on the beach, pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
Oh wait... this isn't the Pina Colada song.. or an online dating site.
I'm just kidding.. I don't have an online dating site.. I don't want some creeper to come and kidnap me. :)

So now that I've written a blog on some of my friends.. I figured I'd talk a little bit about myself. I'm Ashley, Mia is just a nickname.. my middle name is actually Victoria. I'm 18 years old and was born on June 25th.. so I'll be 19 in a little over a month.. not that 19 is a very important age.. besides the fact that its the last teenage year of my life, no big deal.

I'm a student at UMF, majoring in Early Childhood Special Ed. and I'm going to go on after to get my masters in Speech Therapy. I;m not so much interested in being a teacher.. I like kids, but I don't think I could ever deal with a bunch of them all together in a class, but Speech Therapy is for anyone at any age, and they make good money. :)

My family is really important to me. I live with my mom and my dog, Tucker. I'm really close with my moms side of the family. My only cousin on my moms side, Jonathan, is basically my brother.. we grew up together and everyone says we could be brother and sister because we look so much alike. My dad passed away on June 28th, 2007 from Mesothelioma (asbestos cancer). He went through chemotherapy, radiation and a test trial thing that they're working on for patients specifically with mesothelioma, but none of them worked. he passed away almost a year after he was diagnosed. I miss him so much I can't even describe, but I know that at least he's not in pain anymore.

One thing everyone should know about me is that I'm an Equestrian. An equestrian is a horseback rider.. in case someone didn't know. I ride English style, and my discipline is hunters, equitation, and jumpers. All those disciplines involve jumping, so yes.. jumping is one of my favorite things about riding. I've always loved horses, I remember always saying I wanted to go on pony rides and what not.. so I finally started lessons when I was 5 years old, and I've been riding ever since! Riding is my life.. the bond that you can have with a horse is amazing.. it's one of the best feelings in the world.. there's nothing else like it. I know that horses will always be a huge part of my life, and I"m going to ride for the rest of my life. <3

Some other random facts about me and hobbies of mine? I played Field Hockey from 6th to 12th grade. I played lacrosse my freshman year of high school, softball in 6th, 7th and 8th grade, and a bunch of sports when I was little. I love photography. I have a Nikon D40 and I want to take a photography class in school. I'm also pretty good with photoshop. I taught myself everything I know, and I'm still learning.
Music is a huge part of my life.. I almost always have my iTouch with me and when I'm on the computer I almost always have music playing. I like songs that I can connect to, but I'll pretty much listen to anything. I can't just pick one favorite band or one favorite singer because there's so many that I like.

Ah yes.. and the last thing everyone should know about me.. is that I'm really into cars. My dad owned a couple garages and knew pretty much everything about cars.. so I grew up around them. My dad bought me my first car in 2006, a 2000 Volkswagen Jetta VR6. I LOVE my car.. most of the time. Over the past year.. a couple of my guy friends have helped me "pimp" it out. It has halo angel projector headlights, smoked euro tail lights, spoiler, tinted windows (20% in front, and 5% in the back), and we spray painted the 16" stock rims black. So yeah.. I'm really into import cars, american muscle, badass trucks... you know.. :) I don't know everything about cars, but I think I know more about them than most girls usually do, and I'm still learning. :)

I consider myself really lucky to have all these people and things in my life, and even though at times, life can suck and it may seem like the end of the world.. I try to remind myself that there's people out there that have it a lot worse than me and I shouldn't be complaining.. so I try to live life to the fullest because you never know when it could end.