I’ve worked in many fields in my life. I graduated from college in the mid 1970’s and first went to work as a part-time nursery school teacher. I loved the children, but I needed a full- time job. My undergraduate degree was in art so I was happy to get a job as a graphic designer in a tee-shirt factory. Unfortunately, I needed to earn more money than they could pay me. I was going to school at night, studying for my first master’s degree in community counseling at the time. I was finally able to get a job working for the state as a social and rehabilitative counselor. About five years later, due to “Reganomics” I went back to school and took a couple of night classes in computer programming. I was able to talk my way into a different state job, as a COBOL coder. This line of work lasted for about ten years, by then I really missed being in a helping profession. Once again, I went back to school. This time I earned a master’s degree in speech-language pathology.
    I really enjoyed being a speech-language pathologist. In this profession, I was able to help people of all ages who suffered from a variety of disabilities including autism-spectrum disorder, craniofacial disorders, unusual genetic syndromes, post stroke and swallowing disorders, and many other medical conditions. It’s very rewarding and intellectually challenging work. However, after twenty years in this field, I retired early due to health concerns. I decided to spend some time writing.