I am the person I am because I wanted something different. I grew up in a way that makes people admire that I ‘pulled myself up by my bootstraps’, but really, I think I would have been itchy and jumped into new things no matter how I grew up. 

I was curious and I wanted more. I certainly wanted more physical comfort, but really I wanted experience and life. I wasn’t the smartest, most talented, or prettiest, but I was usually the most persistent. 

The first time I remember jumping in where I wasn’t invited was when I was a Girl Scout. It was cookie selling time and I wanted to sell the most cookies. I lived in a poor area and nobody was buying my expensive and delicious cookies. I knew I had to go where people had some money, so I went to a big office building and told them that I was interested in their work, wanted to learn about it, and that I needed to sell some cookies. My plan worked best at a large law practice. Those lawyers filled my order sheet and gave me a law book to start reading. Three weeks later I delivered their orders in three trips, my red metal wagon filled with boxes of cookies. I didn’t return the law book, they seemed really pleased that I wanted to keep it, I just didn’t want to admit I couldn’t understand a word. **perhaps this was also the start of my persistent imposter syndrome. I was 10.

I learned that people do really interesting things, and they want to talk about them. And, that curiosity and interest in others can move a lot of Thin Mints.