It only took me 32 years to figure out what I wanted to do with my life!

Death of a Waterfall

Chapter 4: When the Parents are Away, the Children will Play (*)

She walked up to her brother and stood inches from his face. “I swear to God if you tell Alex about this I’ll tell dad you’re planning on dropping out of law school,” she whispered vehemently.

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In high school we were subjected to those long winded, and in my opinion, useless personality profiles that were supposed to help guide us into the right career path. I always fell into two categories: creative and scientific. Now, I know where my creativity comes from. I come from a long line of writers and I have inherited this love. Ida Tarbell proudly holds a branch on my family tree. My great Aunt Betty--she's been published. I've had several cousins published. An uncle. And my mom, she writes like it's nobody's business. Although she hasn't been published, she writes.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm one of those people that has to see it to believe it. And any time someone tells me something that seems absurd, my response is always, "Prove it." So, naturally, I went to college for science. I was going to be a veternarian! (I'm not, by the way.)

  That dream lasted exactly one and a half semesters.

   I decided it was time to re-group. I took some time off, worked retail for a while, had a baby, got married then realized I wanted to go back to school. But for what? I quickly realized that law was my new calling. I attended a two year community college and got my degree in Criminal Justice.  I didn't stop there. I went to a business college and got my degree in Paralegal studies. Upon graduating, I landed a job in a law firm.

That job lasted exactly seven months.

I was very disappointed and more than a little disillusioned to realize that the law isn't nearly as exciting as it's portrayed on television. There are no death penatly cases or smoking guns or defendants cracking on the stand and confessing their true crimes. So, I gave up the working world to be a stay-at-home mom.

Talk about culture shock. Being a stay-at-mom is twice the work as actually working nine to five. But, I digress....

During my years at home, I realized that I'd learned only one very valuable lesson: find something you're passionate about and then find a way to make money doing it.

And so I finally began to pursue my lifelong dream: to become a published author. Of course, at first I had delusions of grandeur. I was going to be the next Nora Robets or Danielle Steel. But I pulled my head out of the clouds and decided that I'd be happy if I could just publish one book before I die.

The fact that it only took me 32 years to figure out what I wanted to do with my life isn't too bad.....is it?