I had never been into sports growing up nor did I have any interesting hobbies. The one thing I enjoyed doing was art. I became pretty good at one point and today, I think I have lost a lot of my artistic abilities. I kept to myself growing up. I had a hard time growing up and being accepted because I was different and awkward. I used to be the girl who got picked on, couldn't get a date, didn't go to my proms and never made the cheerleading squad. Boy, do I miss the old Shannon! *chuckle* Ahhhh, the good ol days! LOL! All I have to say is, thank goodness for GRADUATION!!!! Hell had ended, finally!

Since, I never had any good experiences with schools and I didn't have any aspirations to be anything but accepted, I decided, what better way to improve your confidence than join the military! Well, that decision making process was easy because I was surrounded by the military and my father was in the military. But follow in his foot steps, I did not, I joined the Army instead. Boot camp was a breeze for me because I was used to people picking on me! All those drill sergeants yelling in my face was too easy to deal with unlike the prissy girls who always had nice things said about them, they took it hard. Guess those rough days in school paid off, eh?

Well, boot camp ended and so did my job training for the telecommunications field. (No it didn't have to do with telephones) I actually signed up for jump school when I enlisted and boy was that worse than boot camp! And what I mean by that is, the physical aspect of it was hard on your body! I remember popping Motrin like candy during those 2 weeks. That's right; jump school is 3 weeks, with the last week being all jumps out of an actual airplane. Apparently, it was not my calling to jump out of planes because the last training day of the 2nd week, I got hurt really bad on what they called the swing land trainer. You were to jump off the top of this really high platform (I forget how high but it was high!) and you were attached to this harness. Anyways, the black hats (the instructors) had control of you so when you walked off the platform, you were to swing, swing, swing down and they would let the rope go and you would fall and do the appropriate PLF (parachute landing fall). Well, instead of letting me swing down low from being all the way up top, the black hat let the rope slip his hands and there went Shannon falling from the platform to her knees *BAM!* Let me tell you, although, I landed on saw dust, the pain was more than I could handle. You guys have seen my frame; I'm surprised I didn't break anything. The words that came out of the black hat's mouth was, and I will never forget it (it still echoes in my head sometimes), OOOPPSS! I'm like OOPPSS???? Boy, I love how sensitive men can be, especially in the military. Of course, I am limping at this point and hobbling away so the next victim can walk off the platform. Well, God forbid you limp in jump school, any signs of limping is instant removal from the training. So I tried hard not to hobble, but it was unbearably painful and I showed weakness and the black hats saw it. 2 words ended my jump school training, SICK CALL. Once they send you to SICK CALL, you can just hang it up. Being tenacious that I am, I argued a good 5 minutes before I was almost wrote up for disobeying a direct order from a non-commissioned officer. I told the black hat that I would be fine and all I needed was some Motrin. He insisted I go and get checked out. I begged him not to send me (I even batted my eyes at him). I was almost through with training. I was going to be jumping my 3rd week and I was on my last day of the 2nd week!!! ARRGGH!! I am so damn frustrated that I felt all that training and running I did for the past 2 weeks was in vain! When I say running, I mean running. In jump school, you run everywhere! And when you run in the afternoons when the Georgia sun is beating you to death, you run in boots!!!! With a Kevlar on your head, poncho in one side pocket, and a full canteen attached to your belt for the nice added weight. I honestly thought I was going to pass out!!! To make things worse, was that I was the last female left in my group, all the others either failed part of their training or quit, so my group was counting on me to make it through. I'm telling you, I had never felt so damn good in my life than I did in jump school. I had people rootin for me and I was making all my runs (which was a big deal in jump school, plus I despised running) and I was completing my training with GOES. That was the military way of saying that you passed a particular station or training. And like all good things, eventually, they come to an end. After going to sick call and having the doctor give me a long word for what was wrong with my knees, I was told to come back in 6 mos. BAH HA HA! No way, Jose! LOL! And go through that torture of running again? So my journey in jump school came to a screeching halt. And it got better; I had to stay in holding for 9 weeks before I could get my orders to go to my first duty assignment. So I got to see my class graduate, what fun that was and 2 others classes! While you wait painfully for your orders to arrive, you get the joy of pulling janitor duty during your extended stay. Gotta love the army because if you have no rank, you can rest assure your butt is either cutting the grass, picking weeds or painting! I have to say though, and I am not proud of this, but the batting of my eyes FINALLY paid off!!! I didn't have to do those horrible details! I got to be the secretary for my company, haha! And how nice was it to finally get these black hats to treat you like a human being. Once you are out of that training, you are like one of them, just shooting the chit. I did enjoy my stay, met some great folks but I have to say, it was torture to watch classes graduate and here I am, without my parachute wings. The orders finally came through and I had a choice between Panama or Kuwait. I chose Panama like any sane person would. I went back to tell the black hats about my decision and got chastised for it! I'm like huh? I should have gone where? They went on and on about how much of a better opportunity it would be to be stationed in Kuwait. They were like, just think of the money you will make, its tax free there and you get hazard pay! (ok, not exactly a good thing) They were like, think of all the money you will save! Think of all the medals you will get! And they were right, but Kuwait, was a miserable stay.

Kuwait being my first duty assignment was tough on me. The heat there was unreal! And anyone who says its only dry heat is full of crap! Dry heat, wet heat, humidity, it's all the same to me, its HEAT!!! I saw stars the first day in Kuwait, I was so dehydrated! I had to get stuck with IVs my first day! I was soooo embarrassed!!! LOL! For the next 2 weeks, I was ordered to carry my canteen of water wherever I went. We lived in trailers and we literally had to walk to another trailer to use the bathroom. And in those bathrooms were locals who practically stayed there for most of the time to keep the facilities clean. The mornings, I was awaken by someone singing outside; I guess Kuwait doesn't have roosters. Kuwait was an interesting journey. There, KFC delivered!! Can you believe that? And McDonalds, man, those burgers really looked like the pictures on the menu!! Of course, there was a line for men, where women could not stand in and a separate line for women only. Everywhere you went in Kuwait City had gold and rugs for dirt cheap! They even had camel races!! LOL! I actually rode on a camelscaaaaaaaaaary! And would you believe alcohol was NOT allowed!!! Talk about going cold turkey for all those lushes! Actually, the lushes we had in our unit got alcohol sent to them in laundry detergent bottles. YUMMMMY! Nothing like tide and vodka mixed together! It was a trip to see these folks had contraband sent to them. What lengths people go through for their addictions? Lucky for me, I had never been a great fan of alcohol. Coming from a family of alcoholics, it's a good idea to not make it a habit to do. I did get promoted fairly quickly in Kuwait because I participated in solider of the quarter boards for cheese points! And the black hats were right; you did get quite a few medals to pin on your uniform! I'm like WOW, shiny!!

My next was good ol FT Bragg! Ok, I joined the Army to travel the world and they sent me right back to where I grew up! HAHA! Hilarious! But because I was in Special Operations, I was able to travel the world again! I ended up in Thailand, Italy, and Germany, to name a few. And traveling with Special Operations meant you lived the good life! They got the best of everything. We supported anyone from Special Forces to the Navy Seals. I was in hog heaven! With traveling to these areas on missions comes getting more shiny medals!! WOOHOO! I think by the end of my 6 = half year journey, I ended up with 3 rows of medals. (Impressive for a youngster) There are some folks who have been in 20 years and never seen so many medals. So I considered myself lucky to have been part of the elite side of the Army.

After all that traveling, I was getting actually tired of it, I ended up in Georgia again! Nothing like that Georgia Heat! Man, I swear that asphalt got so hot sometimes that it would penetrate through my boots! OUCH! Nothing exciting happened in GA except, I finally got out and moved back to North Carolina! (Are you beginning to see a pattern here?) Why North Carolina? Well, I figured it rarely snowed and it wasn't the coldest place to be. You got the mountains, the beaches and having a job lined up didn't hurt. That's how I got my career started as a Network Operations Engineer for a major telecommunications company.

With that great job at Worldcom came an opportunity with Playboy magazine! Never in a million years did I even picture myself in any magazine or modeling for that matter! With the controversy surrounding WCOM, Playboy decided to have a search after the success of The Women of Enron. Of over 900 entries, I was selected as one of the 10 featured. It was such a joke when it started. I wasn't even going to try because you just never think you will get picked. Like I don't play the lottery because I don't think I would win. Hell, with the luck I am having now, I should be! HAHA! I took some amateur photos and when I say amateur photos, I mean they were horrible. What Playboy saw in the photos will always question me. And, the time it took for them to respond to me was astronomical! You would have thought Halle Berry was contacting them to pose! I sent my photographs via email at 10pm and got the call at 4pm the following day by the editor. I was in a panic state when I got the voicemail saying they had received my pictures and they would love to speak with me regarding posing. I was floored and in complete awe struck! I so played it cool calling the editor back; you would have thought I was in demand the way I was being cool. But if you would have seen my face while I was talking to him, you would have thought different! Where is the camera when you need it!?? That would have been a classic shot! I don't think I could ever recreate the look I had that day.

My shoot with Playboy was unbelievable! They treat you like a queen! Anything you needed within reason, they got for you. An example of that was when I told them how I loved how hair looks blowing in the wind in photos. They couldn't find a fan at the mansion where we were shooting, so they went and bought one just because of that! But I'm telling you, my nerves were shot! They didn't make me feel nervous at all, but I am an amateur at all this. I mean, I have taken photos before but not to this degree and naked at that!!!! They made sure you felt at ease and you were to do nothing that made you feel uncomfortable. My makeup artist and production coordinator was Cynthia Kaye (www.cynthiakaye.net) and my photographer was Phillip Vullo (www.phillipvullo.net). An awesome team, I must say! My published picture was in the December 2002 issue. Playboy did contact me again after that shoot and told me that they were going to be featuring me in the "YEAR IN SEX" review, January 2003 issue. Talk about butterflies in my stomach. I thought I was going to be sick from all the excitement. After being published, I had been able to visit the Playboy Mansion twice and what an experience that was hanging with Hef and his women! The certainly do live the good life!! And man, can they throw some parties!!!! I got to meet some great people not to mention celebrities!

Since Playboy, I have been able to work with some of the best photographers in the industry! I have gotten some great photos taken and I would like to share them with you, the fans, the agents, the photographers, the casting directors, the world! I hope you enjoy my photos as I enjoyed taking them! Before I go, I would like to say, to all the men and women of the armed forces, come home safe and soon!!! God Bless this beautiful FREE country that we live in and lets not forget those who sacrificed, so we could enjoy it.