Meet Strong Chick Lauri Rottmayer, I am so excited to introduce you all to her! She is amazing!
Here’s Lauri’s story-
I’m Lauri Rottmayer, former Sergeant, USMC. I joined the Marine Corps when I had just turned 18. In fact, I was even part of the birthday celebration of October birthdays in bootcamp and I adore cake. I breezed through high school in three years. After I graduated, I took a year off to try and figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I decided I wanted to join the military. I went to the Air Force recruiter who told me that there wasn’t really any room for me and I’d have to wait.
My uncle, a Captain in the Marine Corps, caught wind of what I was doing and told me there was no other branch of the service to belong to but the Marines and so I decided to go and see that recruiter. Who was thrilled to see me and signed me right up.
I was selected in bootcamp to go into signals intelligence and after I graduated was sent to NTTC Cory Station in Pensacola, Florida where I met my husband whom I’ve been married to for almost 34 years. We got married at the age of 18 after only knowing each other for 3 months because the military doesn’t guarantee to keep you together but if you’re married, there’s a little bit better chance they will.
Our first duty station was at Camp LeJeune, NC which is where I earned my secondary MOS of Marksmanship Training Instructor. Turns out, I was a pretty good shot and was even chosen to shoot on the rifle and pistol team!
Fast forward all these years, we’ve been all over the world, and for the bulk of my recent adult life I’ve been involved in pageantry. I entered my first pageant at the age of 37 and won the title of Mrs. Congeniality. During this time frame I also competed as a bodybuilder for the first time. I loved the muscle and being strong so, after competing in pageants for three years, I decided to direct them.
I love the International system where I was the Oklahoma director for five years. It is a community service platform based pageant that put me in touch with the most amazing, strong women who were doing incredible things in their communities for causes they were passionate about.
I gave up my directorship when we had plans to move to Saudi Arabia. When the move was cancelled, we spent the next year doing a variety of projects. We lived in our house, an apartment, an RV and a cabin. Now we have just struck out in a whole new direction and moved to Sallisaw, Oklahoma. With him at my side and the world as our oyster, I can’t believe how excited I am!I’m glad I’m a strong chick because I feel like it helped to lay the ground work for everything I’ve done in my life. I know that one I want my granddaughter to learn is that women can be strong and it’s okay. I plan to show her that by example.
Thanks, Lauri! Check out Lauri’s blog-Rott-i-Tude (wow, she has some real strong chick pics!) and website, Laurirottmayer.com.
Lauri has a quote on the cover of her facebook page that she said is very important to her- “The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.” -Thucydides
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