Hello everyone! My name is Cassandra, and I just recently introduced myself in the Introduction forums.

I am 18 years old, and will be turning 19 this September. People always make fun of how short I am; I'm 5'1", although they know I can stick up for myself, so I don't get messed with very often. :P I recently graduated from high school, and I will be trying to sign up for college courses this fall. We had some trouble with signing my financial aid, so it got sent in a little later than I planned. But, hopefully it will be processed in time for me to start the Fall semester. I will be studying at Haywood Community College under a transfer program as an Associate of Science. I love animals, and I hope to become a Biologist, or a wildlife photographer. I still live with my father (my parents have been divorced for many years), and I will be staying with either one of my parents through college.

I take many photos (mostly of my snakes lol), and so far I am self-taught, but I hope to tie Biology with my photography in the future. I love many types of animals, but I am very biased towards snakes. :P I can't get enough of studying or talking about snakes, there's just something about them that's so addictive. I own two snakes as of now, a 3.5ft, 7 year old unsexed ball python and a 5ft, 2 year old male boa constrictor. I plan on adding more to my family in the next few years, and my dream snake is the reticulated python. They are the longest, and reportedly the most intelligent snake, and I love everything about them! Depending on how my life is in the next few years, I will either get a standard-sized or a super-dwarf.

I am not much of a gamer, be it video games, sports, card, or board games. But, I do like quite a few games. My favorite game is Skyrim, I just love being able to do so much in a game, which is why I love open-world RPGs so much. I also used to play the Yu-gi-oh! trading card game, which is the most demanding, mind-bending game I've ever played, but I've become distracted by snakes. lol I have a wide taste in music, but I'm also very picky, and there is much I don't like. I am definitely much more open-minded to music than I was freshman year, though! I will listen to anything from death metal to EBM, and occasionally classical. It depends on my mood and who it is.

When I lived with my mother, we were always going through pets. Lucky, Sweetie, and Tiger are the cats I've had the longest in my life. Lucky chose me as her owner over 7 years ago, when she came up to me, meowing for food and attention. She's been in my family ever since. When my dad got custody of us, she ended up becoming an outdoor cat (although she is now indoor), and got pregnant from one of the strays. She had three babies: Tiger, Sweetie, and Tom. Tom had to be put down before his first birthday due to a terminal back issue (my mom never did tell me exactly what it was, just something was bad with his lower spine). Tiger is still with us, but Sweetie has been missing, and I doubt we'll get her back. I am going to wait until I get in a bigger place to get a dog. My dad doesn't want any dogs here, so I have to wait until I move out. Which is really sad, because I saw this absolutely loveable Staffy mix at the shelter, and I wanted to bring him home so bad. I hope to study on pit bulls and American Staffordshires, and adopt a purebred or a mix, because I think they don't get enough credit. I also love Siberian huskies, and have had a few over the years.

I also love anime and manga, but nowhere near as much as snakes. Everyone in my family call them the "freak cartoons." lol But, I've been hooked since I saw an episode of Dragonball Z when I was 4 years old, although I had a hiatus for many years before getting back into anime/manga again. I much prefer the English-dubbed, and I don't understand the people who vehemently oppose the English versions, especially when much of their reasons for preferring English-subbed are actually untrue. My favorite anime are definitely Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, all the Dragon Ball series (except Kai - ugh), among many others.

Here's a few of me with my two little guys, and one from my Costa Rica trip last year.