Sandra Priest:  

Life Growing up in Northwest Indiana has been an eye opening experience to the rest of the world for sure. I have been traveling quite a bit in the last 5 years and now know just how great my upbringing has been to of had the pleasure of knowing all of the different cultures that were present in the Gary/Merrillville area. It has helped me in being able to relate to just about anyone I meet as I go from different countries. The ethnic things we experienced and all of you who are still there, has made us worldly in our own little ways. I have moved away to Florida but now have 4 homes all over the world. My journey, with my life partner, Simon Priest is neverending. I have developed over the years as an artist who takes with her the laughter, good food, great festivals and the need to know people and how they live and what they are passionate about from my days of living in Northwest Indiana. I started out as a happy child and soon became very independent and headstrong though. By the time I was in High School, I skipped many days and of course, got caught. Talked my art teachers into letting me do my 'own' projects and they let me. I guess they saw in me the independence and the need to express myself in my own way. I loved them all very much for it. I went on to not go to art school, but to get married, have two beautiful children and live my life as a mother, wife and daughter, following in my Moms footsteps and becoming my own real estate broker with an office right by the police station on Broadway called Hunter Properties. It was great time then, but after a few years of doi...Expand for more