Stephen King never got to see me topless!

Someone recently asked me what I wanted to be when I was a little girl and I had to stop and think about it. But I was finally able to piece together the mental journey I went on to end up working in a library (my dream job) at age 40 and I thought I'd re-walk this journey with all of you.

Very early on (about at 5), I wanted to be a nun. I used to put a towel on my head and bless people, my sister, my dogs, Barbie, etc... I honestly thought that was the entire job of a nun. (Probably because my family was NOT Catholic and I was basing my entire knowledge of "the nunnery" on Mary Tyler Moore's riveting performance in the movie A Change of Habit, starring Elvis Presley.) Once I was privy to the added responsibilities, I nixed the whole nun idea. After that I wanted to be a reporter, an actress, and then, of course, a model. Now, I am not sure why I wanted to be a reporter but most likely it was because reporting combines two of my favorite things, 1.) being REALLY, REALLY important and 2.) telling on people. However, at the time there was not a huge market for 10 year old reporters (Damn the Nickelodeon and Disney channels for not taking off sooner!) Unfortunately, my acting career peaked when after trying out for the roles of Dorothy and Glinda the Good Witch in the Webster Elementary 6th grade version of The Wizard of Oz, I was awarded the coveted version of Maid #4 (I realize that some of you are probably saying to yourselves, "I don't remember maids in the Wizard of Oz", well that's because there weren't any. They were token roles given to those of us who had no actual singing ability or were mild-to-moderately handicapped!) My modeling career was brought to a frightening halt when at age 13 my mother signed my sister and I up to be "living mannequins" at the mall. We were modeling shoes and had to stand completely still in "modeling poses". Which probably would have been easier had we not had on a drag queen hooker's amount of make-up and been wearing bright white leotards - to keep the focus on the shoes (It was a Saturday afternoon and the mall was full of kids our age. Our friends kept walking by... and mocking us. But could you really blame them I was 13 years old, 5 foot tall with 130 pounds and a C cup bra stuffed into a medium Spandex leotard?)

Once I got into high school, my career plan was to graduate High School, move to New York, take part-time classes at NYU while working as a stripper and trying to make it in the Big City as a writer. All of the people at the strip club would respect me because I wasn't promiscuous and I was incredibly intelligent. (I know this plan sounds like the plot to a lot of recent movies but I had this plan in the early 80s before any of those flicks were made! *And in my plan, I meet either Stephen King or John Steinbeck while working the pole and they asked to read one of my stories, love it, and help to get me published!)

After high school, I actually did work as a waitress (I liked it!), a bank teller (wasn't crazy about it!), and a nanny (was mentally molested doing it!) before I began my career in social work. Which I loved for the first 10 or 12 years and then I got tired. Finally, I got a chance to work at the library and I have never been happier. And that is the story of what I wanted to be when I grew up and how I ended up at the library.

*Disclaimer: I have no actual knowledge that either John Steinbeck or Stephen King frequent New York City strip clubs and have no proof of my own ability to successfully work a pole.