Leah Welch jolted up from a deep sleep in the seat of her car. What she believed was an earthquake was actually another car backing into hers in a remote parking lot.
A few years later, she is attempting to hike in New Zealand. Looking like Quasimodo from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," she sustains the irritating pain radiating from her freshly tattooed foot. She trudges on in that forest and in an existence that has seen her cram a life's worth of experiences in just 30 years.
"I think life should be lived experientially," she said smiling.
Leah Welch has traveled the world and is now earning her masters in Journalism while working as a graduate assistant for the Innocence Institute. This is just another experience to add to her long list that includes travels to 48 of the United States, five countries and 30 or so jobs that have grounded in her desire to write.
Welch said she has always been a writer. She wrote a poem when she was just four years-old, and was published by the time she was eight. Her family had an old type-writer that she would write neighborhood stories on to be published in the newspaper of her hometown, Pleasant City, Ohio.
She admits that she was very shy as a child, hiding behind furniture and reading books. Reading a lot of Leo Tolstoy and Emily Dickinson, coupled with speech therapy to correct her "R" pronunciation, made it difficult for Welch to communicate with children her age. She was living in a Southern Ohio town, but talking like a 19th century noble.
However, when it came to defending her siblings, Welch threw all timidity away. Welch recalls an incident at her bus stop when "some punk kid" said something about her younger sister, Hannah.
"I jumped him and pinned him down," laughed the slight woman, who would not exactly intimidate anyone with nothing but her eyes.
That kind of fearlessness developed as she grew older and lead her to her many adventures after high school. Although her resume lists ten jobs, Welch said she has had over 30 different jobs.
"All of the different jobs that I have had, I was attracted to the story of it," she said.
She has written music reviews, been a sports photographer, edited a book, all while working to further her education. Welch received her bachelor's degree in Art and English, with minors in Sociology and Gender Studies, at Muskingum University in December 2002. Three years later, she received her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Chatham University.
"She is always willing to learn new life skills," said Edra Crow, her mother, in a phone interview on Nov. 22.
This willingness also helped encourage Welch to take on new, exciting jobs. While she said she had her fair share of boring run-of-the-mill jobs – like working in a factory, being a waitress at Denny's, a college lunch lady, among many others – the more thrilling jobs kept her interest.
Among these numerous jobs, Welch carries the title of editor of Rory Miller's "Discovering Beautiful: On the Road to Somewhere." Strangely enough, she found the author on a friend's Myspace page, and immediately became attracted to the writing style. After keeping contact back and forth, Miller invited her to edit his book in London, England.
Welch, never one to say "no" to a new adventure, found herself living in England in late 2009. She stayed with Miller's friend while she read and reread his book about his hitch-hiking adventure across America. While there, Welch says they once stole a sailboat in Essex and once unintentionally camped out on a neighbor's lawn.
"Those photos are no longer on the internet," Welch said of the crazy adventures.
Welch had worked as a stand-in for various movies in the past, but wanted to kick it up a notch by being a stunt woman. She began stunt work in the movie "Warrior" (2009), where she met Dean Pyles, the stunt coordinator for the movie.
He invited members of the stunt crew to stay with him and his family in Virginia to study Pyles Vale Tudo, a form of mixed martial arts he created. Welch was the only one who took him up on the offer and spent five months training seven hours a day. To this day she still practices this form of exercise in her spare time.
Although Welch has had unique experiences at each of her jobs, she said her favorite was her internship at National Geographic in Washington, D.C. last summer. She worked in the archive department, filing photographs from the years 1908-1910. All of the photos were either published or had the rights to be published by National Geographic.
Welch then tells a story of how she held an original photograph by Herbert Ponting, an early 20th century expedition photographer known for his work from the Terra Nova Expedition. The man working in the archives department showed it to her.
"In the tiniest voice, I said, ‘Can I hold it?'" she said, smiling and reenacting the expression on her face.
That experience is just one of the many reasons Welch would love to work there with a full-time job. She also said the people there are what really made the job; they are educated, experienced and have personality.
Her dream job would be to work as author John Irving's literary assistant, a position she recently applied for.
"I think if she got that job, she'd stay with it," her mother said.
Currently, Welch is working on her second masters. She decided now was the time to study journalism after a recent terrible car accident left her incapacitated for months. She recalls interviewing at Point Park with braces on both of her legs.
For her mother, this was the most difficult time; however, intrepid Welch would not let it hold her back. "She pretty much rehabilitated herself ... I'm very grateful to have her in my life," Crow said.
Welch was immediately accepted into the program, and now spends her days in class, studying, and working for Bill Moushey alongside Darlene Natale, while another graduate assistant.
"She's a team player," Natale said of Welch and her work ethic. They both agreed when Welch began in late August that they would divide up the work and help each other.
On the rare occasion Welch is not working, studying or attending class, she can be found exercising, volunteering, or getting inked. Her most visible tattoo is quotes from her favorite novels running vertically up her arm on a curve.
Another tattoo, this one on her foot, she got while visiting a friend in New Zealand. Impulsive and ready for a tattoo, she eagerly got it her first day there, not thinking of how irritated it would get trekking in the mountains and forests of New Zealand. Despite that, she believes the timing was right. Welch describes the tattoo as a dichotomy of her past and future, because her feet take her where she wants to go.
But most importantly, she enjoys spending time with her close-knit family on the weekends. While at home, she hangs out with her brother Dan, sister, nieces and nephews; shops and plays Scrabble with her mom; and goes to the movies with her dad John. Welch tries to spend as much time with them as possible.
Welch does not know what the future holds for her, but of two things she is certain: She will get her tattoo finished - one tattoo, head to toe - and writing will be involved.
Until then, she continues living in the moment. She sits at her desk writing a story for the "New York Times" assigned by Moushey earlier in the day. Within an hour it is written, edited by Moushey and sent off to the "Times." She turns away from the computer, relieved, and with a look of utter bliss on her face.
"Anything that makes you feel joy like that is the right thing."
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