Matt and Jessica’s Life Website

About Jessica:

Jessica was born and raised in the small town of Eureka, Montana near Glacier Park and the Canadian border. She then took the path less travelled out of town, and with the encouragement and support of many great people in the community, headed off to college at Montana State University Bozeman to pursue her engineering degree. In Bozeman, she made many excellent friends and unforgettable mentors, who all had a significant impact on her life path and choices. Throughout her college years, she could be found hanging out celebrating every day of life with her great groups of girlfriends, struggling through late nights of grueling engineering homework problems, spending time with her mentors and their families, or lining up her next summer job experience.

After college, in the spirit of adventure and in order to begin her career, she researched cities which would provide a good life and career opportunities and chose San Diego, California. She had only been to San Diego once for an exciting MTV Spring Break Beach Party. She always thought she may try somewhere else after unthawing for a little while, but ended up loving the sun, many outdoor activities, and also the great opportunities to build her career in the direction that she wanted, so she stayed. After five years working as an engineer in the electronics industry, she was able to leverage her professional experience and transfer into the medical device industry, where she felt that she could serve a greater purpose making a difference in the lives of patients with heart disease.  

About Matt:

I was born and raised in the booming metropolis of Mansfield, Ohio located just between Cleveland, OH & Columbus, OH.  It was in this city that I was blessed with the curse of rooting for Cleveland teams (Browns, Indians, & Cavs) for the rest of my life.  At least I still have Ohio State sports to fall back on but Cleveland teams are my true passion.

After high school I attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and completed a degree in engineering five years later.  Those five years on the OU campus brought me many of my best friends, best times, & greatest memories so far.  I can still remember how the trees look in the fall, the smell of the air on those crisp fall days, and the sounds of cars driving down the brick roads of Court Street.  There truly is no other campus like Ohio University and I’m proud to say that I went there!

With my passion for travel and my “you only live once” attitude I spent my summer breaks living on the island of Hilton Head, SC and my winter breaks living in Vail, CO.  It always puts a smile on my face when I think back to loading the car with a suitcase, group of friends, no job, no place to live, and $300 to my name.  Ha!  We always got jobs, found places to live, and had great times in the short amount of time we were there but our parents must have thought we were crazy!

As the end of college years were approaching, it was time to decide where I would enter the “real-world”.  With my experiences in Hilton Head, SC I knew that I wanted to live near a beach with great jobs and San Diego, CA had a nice ring to it!  I had never been to San Diego (or California for that matter) but I thought to myself “I can always move back to Ohio if it doesn’t work out”.  In August of 2001, a group of friends and I loaded the car with no job, no place to live, very little cash, and headed to San Diego, CA.  I’m sure my parents thought I was crazy again!

I’ve been in San Diego ever since and have never looked back.  The city has the perfect combination of beaches, lifestyle, sports, and jobs that fit everything I ever wanted and it’s been hard to leave ever since.  The only drawback to living here is that I miss my family and friends back in Ohio.

How We Met:

Upon Jessica’s job industry transfer from electronics into medical device, she was recruited for an opening in a large medical device organization where her predecessor (Matt) had moved on to another internal opportunity on a career rotation seeking broad engineering experience. As Jessica began her position there, she eventually came across reports that Matt had written and needed to meet with him to inquire. Although she eventually came to admire his engineering work and his gift of working very well with all people, many times in trying to solve a problem, she would bombard him with questions to a point that he would just respond “Yes….I am sure that someone could do it better given more time or resources.”

Small talk picked up over a period of five months, where eventually they would meet at an Autumnal Equinox (yes, any reason to celebrate) Happy Hour that Jessica had arranged with her colleagues. They instantly connected on a new level and it was only days later that Matt asked Jessica out on a date. That was almost three years ago now and they have each been through many changes and growth personally and professionally, and have celebrated many fun times and travels together.

The rest is history now, as they will officially marry on September 20th, 2008, just two days before the Autumnal Equinox!!!!

After marriage, they will continue living in San Diego and are in the process of purchasing a home in Carlsbad, California, a coastal city half way between San Diego and Orange County.  The couple especially loves travelling, the outdoors, snorkeling, ocean kayaking, camping, and attending live sporting events (Matt’s other passionate love).