24/02/2022
Hi friends and family!!
I am Mica Ratzlaff, here is a short introduction and brief synopsis of what I hope will come from this page.
As many may know, I am from Southwest Kansas. I was raised in Rolla, Kansas and graduated from Elkhart, Kansas. I was brought up in a loving farming family in the area; my dad raised me to find a fiery passion and follow it through to my deepest desires, stay strong, and stay determined while my mom taught me how to love people, our planet, how to show kindness. Both of my parents are a big part of why I ended up choosing design. (But I’ll get to that in a moment). I was raised with two beautifully brilliant sisters that showed me what to do (and not to do 😉 ) growing up. They were both gracious and patient with me when I was just a tag along sister trying to learn and be cool. Ultimately, Staci has shown me what loving someone with a big heart can do for our world. Dotti has always had more confidence in me than I do myself and has shown me the way to following my heart. I was also lucky enough to find a man that has shown me enough patience to last a lifetime (through all of my busy times) and supports and motivates me in my dreams. I could continue for days just on how much my family (close and distant) has taught me or helped me love throughout my years, but I will jump to…
Why am I in design?
Although it may seem crazy, I graduated from EHS in 2017 and pursued my Masters of Architecture and a Minor of Business at Kansas State University from then to THIS May of 2022! I have known for awhile I have wanted to be in design or architecture. How? Well… I should have known much sooner how serious my young dream of being an architect someday was when I played sims for hours and found cheat codes for money just so I could build awesome houses and buildings. However, I actually knew my heart belonged to designing the world around us the the buildings we spent 90% of our time in when I visited Washington DC at a young age. Being within our capitol and seeing how planning and design can directly influence and help people on a daily basis, stole my breath away. The design of our world and architecture was and always will be my first love.
After being at KSU, I have been taught so many great and wonderful things. I have made lifelong friendships. Built a small family with a man I love. I could, again, continue… Most importantly, my college time has literally opened my eyes to a completely different way of seeing the world. A designer CAN NEVER look at the world the same after breaking through the designer lens. You probably look at a pair of shoes, taillights, pencil, dish, home, etc so much differently than I do now. I can never know information without knowing WHY. Why was it designed this way? How does it help the end user? What can it contribute to our world? Etc. I am always looking for problems to find solutions to, and I LOVE IT. So anyway, I won’t continue to rant, but I graduate in MAY. Therefore, I want to share my journey with my friends and family on Facebook as well as give a communication platform for growing my own designer business!
Which means!!! Although I am going to be pursuing my career within a firm (later to be announced), I will be happy to help those of you interested in remodeling, adding to your home, or designing a dream home after graduating. I will be licensed soon and can do commercial work after when I am officially an architect, but before then, it is legal in most states for me to design for residential! Please contact me for ANY job, even if it’s helping you do a back patio, reroofing, painting, etc. I love it all! As my career continues forward and I learn more and more, my hopes are to continue to bring the knowledge I have back to our little community.
Now that I have written a book, thank you all for the support and love the community has constantly given me. I continue to do what I love because I had the support to help me find my passion growing up, I will never forget that.
❤️❤️❤️
