“The girl with two first names,” is often how Tracey Emily describes herself. In and out of college for more than 19 years, she began at Southwest Missouri State in 1996 at the recommendation of friends and now begins her final year of school at Missouri State University. From Potosi, Missouri, she’s been a physical education major and a recreation and leisure studies major, but now will graduate with a degree hospitality and restaurant administration major with a minor in marketing.

“It took me a while to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do…I could have got this (degree) done at 21, but I’m glad I didn’t, because I would have gotten a degree in something I don’t want to do!”

Her circuitous college route isn’t the only thing that makes Tracey unique. She’s also an Apache helicopter crew chief and mechanic for the Missouri Army National Guard, something else that extended her college time. She had always wanted to join, and she finally did at the age of 25 after an interview with a recruiter, who highlighted the adventure, travel and excitement of being in the Guard. “And I thought, ‘Sign me up!’” she says, alight with excitement. She wanted to do something with her life, and this was a great opportunity to do it.

The only snag was finding something for Tracey to do in the National Guard. Tracey says they kept trying to push office or administration jobs on her, but she told them, “I can do that anywhere…give me something else. I’m not going to join if I can’t find something exciting.” Finally, she was offered a job as an Apache helicopter mechanic, and she said, “YES!” She laughs as she clarifies that she didn’t know a thing about being a helicopter crew chief, she just knew it sounded like something amazing.

She gets deployed on average every three to four years. Her first deployment was to Kuwait, and the last two were to Afghanistan. While Tracey does more mechanic work here in the States, she is a crew chief overseas. It’s her responsibility to make sure that the Apaches and Blackhawks she works on are ready to go at a moment’s notice. She says that the sand is sometimes the worst part of keeping the helicopters shipshape.

During her first deployment, Tracey spent her leave backpacking across Europe instead of going home to the United States. She saw places in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. She describes the experience as unreal; Venice was the most memorable to her because of how rich the history was there.

The National Guard and this love of travel may be the catalysts that help Tracey achieve her ultimate goal: managing a hotel or resort in the Caribbean, specifically in Puerto Rico. She can fulfill her commitment to the Guard at the unit station there while also following her passion for customer service and hotel management.

Though, that may not be what she ultimately wants to do after all. As she takes more classes for her marketing minor, she is thinking she might want to manage marketing for a hotel, instead of managing the hotel in full.

Regardless of where her education takes her, Tracey looks forward to graduating this coming May and embarking on the next stage of her life with enthusiasm and optimism.