Occasionally, the question comes up... and it's never exactly an easy one to answer. "What did you do before you were a writer?"
In many ways, the answer is absolutely nothing because I have ALWAYS written. I really have been writing in some form or fashion since I was very little. One of my first memories is of practicing the lower case letter, "h," until I got it perfect... and it really was all downhill from there, but I've always worked, so I can guess you could say I had jobs before I was a writer for hire.
What jobs? Ok, wow. I had a job in resturant in high school where I learned the meaning of hard work and how much fun it could really be. There I also learned to be thankful for wonderful co-workers and how to handle folks that insisted on being less than pleasant. I think everyone should have the experience of working in a resturant at least for a little while. It's a job that teaches humility and good customer service skills... lessons everyone should be required to take some time to learn. Working there made me a better person.
I also worked in a drug store. There I learned how important precision was and continued my customer service training. I also learned to juggle two jobs and school at once, something I would have to do again later in life and valuable time managment skills.
I worked in the office of one of my favorite college professors while studying communications and philosophy, two things I loved, and that was less like a job and more fun than it probably should have been. In the process, my writing, typing, and phone skills improved drastically. I also learned how to sweet talk a monster of a copy machine.
I worked for a phone company in college, too. (The two job theme keeps appearing, I know.) I ended up staying on with them for several years after college was over. There I experienced the wonders and pains of being a manager, learned how important building a team was, and enjoyed learning from some amazing mentors.
After that, I was a teacher. The truth is that my students probably taught me more than I taught them. I learned to love and mentor some amazing kids and I hope I left them with a few worthwhile lessons that meant even more than the literature and Latin and technology classes I taught.
Now, I write. It's been a fantastic and very blessed journey to this point and I'm looking forward to the continuation of the story...
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