Melissa was born in Zanesville, Ohio on July 11, 1985.

Her father was a maintenance man at a local hospital and her mother was a secretary.

She attended catholic school grades K-12.  She graduated from Rosecrans High School in 2003.

Then began her long and winding college career.

She began at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA, a small catholic school.  She was majoring in art therapy.

In October of 2003 Melissa’s mom died after a long struggle with cancer.

After her first quarter at Mercyhurst, Melissa transferred back to her home state and began at Ohio University in the winter of 2004 where she majored in psychology.

Brad was born in Beaver, Pennsylvania on July 28, 1984, just outside of Pittsburgh.  His father was a pastor and his mother was a nurse, Brad was the youngest of 5 children.

At a very young age his family moved to Columbus, Ohio.

Brad graduated from Westerville South high school in 2003.  He was awarded a full scholarship to Ohio University.

He and Melissa met in the winter of 2004.

They dated for about a year and a half before getting married on July 30, 2005.  They lived in Athens, Ohio for a year while Melissa continued at Ohio University and Brad, no longer interested in higher education, worked as the manager at a W.G. Grinder’s sandwich shop.

In the summer of 2006, they moved to Columbus so that Melissa could transfer to the Ohio State University where she decided to study Sociology.

In Columbus Brad worked internet technical support for a time, then as a courier while Melissa attended school and worked part time at a coffee shop.

In February of 2007 Brad landed a web editor job at a TV station, NBC 4, in Columbus thanks to his degree in kicking ass with a minor in taking names.

Melissa graduated from OSU in the summer of 2007, and was promoted to general manager of her coffee shop, EspressOasis inside of the OSU Medical Center.

Brad and Melissa attended Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Grove City throughout their time in Columbus.  They were active volunteers for the church high school youth group.

In the summer of 2007, they began planning to travel to India to work at a children’s home in March, 2008.  However, due to internal financial issues at the children’s home and Melissa and Brad’s growing disillusionment with organized religion, those plans were scrapped in October of 2007.

They had planned that after their return from India they would live a life free of possessions, possibly traveling the country in an RV.

When the India plans fell through they decided to expedite their transition to simpler living and left their jobs on February 1, 2008.

They put together SimplyOneLife.org as a way to communicate with friends and family, share their travels and speak their minds on issues that they found pertinent.

They continue to do so to this day.

The End.