My Story
I flew from my home state and said “see you never!” (legitimately thinking I’d never choose to live in Minnesota ever again).
I knew that whatever I put my efforts into in this life, I would propel that thing forward.
Welcome to my page, and thank you so much for taking time to read my blog. I didn’t anticipate that I would blog about my most recent experiences – but here we are!
My name is Sabrina Ciaciura. I was born and raised in Hopkins, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul). After graduating High School, I went to the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and earned my Bachelor’s degree in Family Social Science.
At the time of graduating college, I was not interested in obtaining a masters degree in order to become a licensed Social Worker or Marriage and Family Therapist. I was, at the time, working at Best Buy and also didn’t feel retail was my future. So, I did what anyone might do… I spontaneously joined the Navy.
I flew from my home state and said “see you never!” (legitimately thinking I’d never choose to live in Minnesota ever again) as I made my way through boot camp in Great Lakes, then on to school in Monterey, California. There, I studied Arabic for 64 weeks in an intensive “drink-from-the-firehose” course.
Thankfully, I learned to swim instead of sink and went on to be a Naval Aircrewman, translating Arabic, and deploying five times to the Middle East and Europe.
When it came time to reenlist – I had two options… Go further into the Navy mission, or exit stage left. I knew that whatever I put my efforts into in this life, I would propel that thing forward. So, I left the military behind to do some soul-searching.
I spent some time traveling by car around the US. At that time, everything I owned fit in to my 2012 Scion tC and I was truly living the vagabond life.
By Spring of 2019, I settled down in Washington state and took a break from the rigor of military life. I met a wonderful couple who introduced me to a group of people, and before I knew it I was on a plane to Thailand!
After spending two months in Thailand doing a retreat, I flew to Australia right before the turn of the year from 2019 into 2020. I spent the pandemic in Australia until June of 2021, in which I flew back (not just to the US, but back HOME) to Minnesota (story for a different blog post).
Shortly after arriving to MN, I signed up for a five month coding bootcamp, which landed me a job as an Associate Software Engineer!
These Days
Currently, I spend my time attending church and Bible study every week, including participating on the church worship team. I spend a lot of time with my puppy, Ruhi! I enjoy reading and I am excited to explore more of Minnesota, in a way that I never did when I was younger. I am working as a Software Engineer, battling the feelings of imposter syndrome (check out my blog on that coming soon).
Thank you so much for taking time to get to know me! Check out the gallery below to see some more glimpses of my life throughout the recent years!
Fun Facts About Me
- I played violin for nine years
- I love to knit and crochet!
- I speak five languages!
- I love animals and want to have horses, sheep, and a pack of Australian Shepherds on a farm someday!
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Sabrina Ciaciura
Some say I chose the Navy the uniform brought out the blue in my eyes
Rugby is the sport I’ve been playing since 2009. I even got to play when I lived down under, mate!
Aircrew! One of my five deployments.
Some of the wonderful people I spent time with in Australia during the 2020 pandemic.