A good nine-plus months before she was born, Erin Ashby, Michelle's mother, was spending her week at a pharmaceutical conference, learning about the new fast-tracking regulations and other boring new powers of the FDA that were sure to make her job more difficult. Washington was cold. Why the hell wasn't she back in California? Why hadn't these assholes sprung for somewhere tropical to enjoy their week?

Still, the entire thing wasn't all bad, and at the end of it she did find herself a fling. Tall, blond to match her own, and, two months later and in a dingy hotel room in Los Angeles on another business trip, she also discovered the extra present he'd given her as a goodbye. Not one to shy away from consequences, Erin sucked it up and became the best single mother she could - with the help of her parents, of course. Michelle and Erin grew up down the street from Erin's parents in Savannah, and when Erin was traveling, Michelle spent her time with her grandparents at The Sugar Shack, their dessert stand on Tybee.

When Michelle was twelve, though, all of that changed. Colonel Richard Steele, on a visiting professor semester at the Army War College, had decided to take a day trip to Philadelphia. Enter Erin Ashby, fresh off a meeting at Glaxo for a regional sales rep interview down in the Hilton Head/Savannah area. A dropped wallet led to drinks led to dinner led to numbers exchanged and Erin wondering if this could be a reality for her. A few months later, Rick proposed and Erin informed her parents and Michelle that they'd be moving south to the Army base where Rick was stationed. Far be it for Michelle to stay behind with her grandparents, she said goodbye to Savannah, hello to Fort Benning, and moved on with her life. Michelle Ashby became Michelle Steele, and that was the end of that.

Having attended what was arguably the best public high school in Georgia (at least on paper), Michelle surprisingly floated to the top of what she called her "scum-pond class". She wasn't used to Army Brat life and part of her hated it, but at least she could get out. A top-ten ranking in her graduating class and halfway decent SAT scores gave her the flexibility to essentially choose her own university. While state school almost won out, Michelle wanted to get out and explore the world. Her mother had always told her great stories about traveling, and while it wasn't the smartest idea for her student loans, she wanted to do the same. In this case, it was Boston's Northeastern University. She still didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, so a huge school was her best bet - it allowed her to explore different classes and change her major no fewer than seventeen times, though she eventually settled on a combined major in Communication Studies and Sociology. For some reason, visual arts had always been appealing to her, though with little artistic talent to speak of of her own, she found the science behind advertising facsinating. She did her co-ops and externships with local advertising firms but still wasn't sure about getting her own job. An MBA was obviously the next step, and she moved from Northeastern to Suffok.

Armed with an MBA and (luckily) a job offer, Michelle lived fairly uncomfortably with a bunch of other roommates in a small house for about a year, trying to establish herself. Just because she had a job didn't mean it wasn't entry level. That combined with her loan debt was enough to make her consider moving back in with her mother and stepfather, though she had a bit more pride than that. What more ruined her dreams of - whatever they were, maybe to be the modern incarnation of, oh, Peggy Olson? She still had no idea - was the call back to Savannah. Both Erin and Michelle were called back in mid-2016. Erin's mother had had a major stroke, and The Sugar Shack was in need of family coverage and help while everyone got back on their feet. Erin stayed for a few months; Michelle's leave of absence from work turned into a formal resignation at the end of 2016. There was much bitterness and Michelle realized when she left Savannah the first time, she never really expected to come back, so being back home left a serious chip on her shoulder and with a bad attitude towards almost everyone she'd once been friends with.

While it was expected Michelle would take over The Sugar Shack after everything was all said and done, this did not happen. She's still not sure if part of that is due to her anger or not about being home, but she only knew how to market businesses - not run them. She was content to continue to indulge in the "owned" part of "family-owned" but not necessarily "operated", and she hired a manager who could more easily run day-to-day operations for them. What she did have going for her was a lot of experience in advertising and marketing in one of the most tourist-y cities in the entire country. Thanks to her family's longstanding connections in the community, she was able to do a lot of networking and now works with RobMark, as well as occasionally consults with some smaller businesses on Hilton Head just up the road. She's still just down the road from her grandparents in case they need her, and she's finally used to being back in Georgia after all this time.

For the most part, Michelle has finally setteld back into life in Georgia. While her personality hardened and became a bit more sarcastic from the happy-go-lucky child she always was (and why wouldn't it? Her entire worldview changed at an early age, and while her stepfather was never anything but good to her, it was still a major change) she does still try to keep a smile on her face. (Or an inappropriate joke, depending on the company and how well she knows them.) Her enthusiasm for her job is contagious, though also helped along by massive caffeine consumption. Some of her "Northern Hustle" remains intact after being up there for quite a few years, and while she may get strange looks from some of her native acquaintances for not being as relaxed as she used to be, she doesn't mind. She finds all the zen she needs to during early morning surfing or a late night walk on the beach. The water's always been one of her grounding forces, and she takes every advantage she can to spend as much time there as possible.