The Author at Work Whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a nurse. Now I was only about four or five years old at the time, but the choices were nurse or teacher at that time, and I thought that carrying around "Nurse Nancy's" medical bag was cool.
Somewhere along the line I lost my interest in nursing -- probably around age ten, when I changed my mind and decided to be a newspaper reporter. I always liked drawing and writing and spent many happy hours pounding on an old manual typewriter at my grandmother's house. I also took old notebooks and turned them into makeshift newspapers, cutting out pictures from magazines and making up news stories to go with them. When I couldn't find an appropriate picture, I'd draw one.
Somehow, the stories were all tragedies of children being killed in fires and car crashes. Ewwwww.
I maintained my interest in journalism all through high school (I was editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper), but I became disillusioned in college when my creative writing teachers were less than supportive about my submissions. I ended up getting a degree in speech and theater, with a concentration in television production ... and the rest, as they say, is history.
Looking back, I probably should have stuck with my first choice, nursing, even though I can't stand to be around someone tossing their cookies. At least I'd have my choice of jobs and be making good money.
Somewhere along the line I lost my interest in nursing -- probably around age ten, when I changed my mind and decided to be a newspaper reporter. I always liked drawing and writing and spent many happy hours pounding on an old manual typewriter at my grandmother's house. I also took old notebooks and turned them into makeshift newspapers, cutting out pictures from magazines and making up news stories to go with them. When I couldn't find an appropriate picture, I'd draw one.
Somehow, the stories were all tragedies of children being killed in fires and car crashes. Ewwwww.
I maintained my interest in journalism all through high school (I was editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper), but I became disillusioned in college when my creative writing teachers were less than supportive about my submissions. I ended up getting a degree in speech and theater, with a concentration in television production ... and the rest, as they say, is history.
Looking back, I probably should have stuck with my first choice, nursing, even though I can't stand to be around someone tossing their cookies. At least I'd have my choice of jobs and be making good money.
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