Shirley's Bio

In pursuit of my degree, it is customary to post a short biography at the beginning of every five week class so the facilitator and students can get a sense of each other (in an online environment, words are all you have to go by). Here is my latest revision:


My name is Shirley Downie, and I am a 38-year old woman of Spanish descent. I live in California with my 17-year old son, Christopher.

One year ago, my husband Russ was killed in a motorcycle accident. I was already working towards my degree, and certainly this devastating event sidetracked those plans – along with everything else – and I was forced to drop the class I was attending at the time.

Beyond the shock, anger, sadness and array of other emotions that I’ve had to deal with in trying to process my loss, my instincts guided me to the realization that life – my life – goes on. This idea has been reinforced for me every day since my husband’s death. So I’m still here, with less than a year to go to achieve my educational goal.

I am an expressive communicator, which means it’s all about feelings and emotions for me. In my professional career much of my experience is drawn from positions of customer service, training, and project management. I produce the best results when I am allowed free reign to meet an objective using my own methods. I am a self-employed life insurance agent (primarily), with a smattering of other business ventures mixed in which include public relations and music.

I enjoy the learning environment and interpersonal interaction that school provides, but as my life gets busier I confess I am looking forward to graduation next October – particularly because I will be able to recoup all of the time in my schedule currently devoted to assignments and studying.

I also look forward – with growing excitement – to the many possibilities of life.