I babysat 20 hours a week when I was in my early teens, after that I got a Job at a video store (15yo). For my last few years in High School I worked at a theme park near our house, for Nickelodeon and I had the coolest job ever ($5.50 an hour, big money!!I), I got to dress in a florescent orange flight suite and dump slim on people’s heads, and dance on stage. It was simply the coolest jobs ever. In high school we looked at a few colleges, The North Carolina School of Film which my parents talked me out of attending. Too expensive, what will you do with that degree? I think the main issue was they didn't want me in that much debt, or even themselves in that much debt. So I went to Jr. College for a year, I was too afraid to apply to the normal colleges. I had a 2.7 GPA and knew that I would have a hard time with traditional college. So in the second semester at the Jr. College I had dropped out of nearly all of my classes except English and Life Drawing. I have always been an excellent read, on College level when I was in 7th grade (yet at the time I tested on a 5th grade math level). Like many learning-disabled children I did unusually well at some things, and dreadfully bad at others.

This was at the dawn of the internet reaching suburban America, and my father always embracing computers (oddly enough he still has to call me to send e-mails) he purchased a "Quantex" computer and got us on the internet. Coolest. Dad. Ever. So I would go on that computer and into chat rooms. I met a girl named Halsted who just happened to chat in the same room as me. I struck up a friendship with all kinds of crazy different people. Back then it wasn't dangerous, it was unknown. One of the people in the chat room "Lil-Devil" told me about the Art Institute of Philly. So then I found out the Art Institutes had colleges all over the country, and they where accredited, and they had an AA degree so you didn't have to spend so much as on a BA.

At the same time Halsted encouraged me to download mIRC and I learned how to write scripts, all kinds of crazy fun scripts so that I could make pretty colored flowers out of text, or make automated actions. I liked it a lot. I also used Front Page to make a website but I never realized there was code behind it. So then I applied to AIA. Life at the time was sort of in an awful standstill, and I was so nervous about "getting in" to AIA, but I did get in and I left on a grand adventure to Atlanta.

My parents paid for 80% of the loans, but when it came to food or clothing I was on my own. Being in an Art School and coming from such a competitive high school was an interesting combination. During the 2 years I went to AIA I never left for the summer, but stayed in school so i could get done faster. I sometimes worked 2 or 3 jobs, or volunteered someplace like Mind Spring so that I could get some experience in web stuff. The degree I was working towards was called "Multimedia & Web Design". So later I became student body president, which isn't hard to do in Art School. Then i started attending industry events so i could learn more stuff about how it was in the job world, as I always thrived on working. I met a guy who worked for a contracting company, and he said he had the perfect job for me, it was indeed the perfect job. I would work 20 hours a week for Autotrader.com working on HTML prototypes. Do you know Dreamweaver they asked? Of course, I said. Boy that first month was rough, but fun! I worked there for about a year during my last year in school and I got paid $15 bucks an hour which was big money for a college student. I got loads of good experience and had a wonderful boss.

During portfolio I had a 2.7 GPA and the dean insisted I get it higher if I was to win "Best Portfolio" because I was an "example" to other students. I never cried so hard in my life. She didn't want to let me into the portfolio class. My teacher however, the most awesome teach ever was great about it. I did win portfolio show, and I was very proud.

So then I had a few interviews and 1 or 2 jobs to select from, and I picked the one that paid less, because the people looked *way* less stressed. I was bored out of my mind. I was working for a very nice dot com but all i did was create banner ads all day and while my design skills improved dramatically I was simply bored. I would come in at 10am and leave at 3pm. Also I was broke as a joke, and living by myself. I didn't want a roommate so I set off using my connections and looked for a new job. I got a very large pay raise and started working as a front end HTML coder. I didn't like that place very much, but the stuff I got to work on was great for my portfolio and I got some enjoyment out of it. The bubble burst and they laid all but 3 of the 25 employees off. I barrowed about 1,000 from my now husband so I could pay the rent, and I took a very un-fun job color-correcting photographs of teddy bears and umbrellas for a website that sold corporate gear companies could place their logos on. My "desk" was in a hallway. That lasted about 2 months, then I got my current job at a major telecommunications company, it paid 2,000 less then my last full time job and I was so happy I didn't take more of a pay cut, I had seen a lot of friends leave the industry entirely due to reductions in pay etc. My husband and I dated on and off through all of this and we both fought to stay in the industry, and we didn't give up. I have been at my current job 5 years now; I am now in my 3rd position after 2 promotions during those 5 years. I also have worked in 3 different groups which is basically like having a new job but the benefit of still staying within the same company. While working here I went and got my BA and I graduated Cum Laude which I am intensely proud of given my academic history.

Throughout this career of mine I have been a coder, a designer, an artist and now a "User Experience / Usability / Information Architect" which is a section of my industry that is going through lots of growing-pains as they struggle to find a proper name and place in the process. I strongly believe the roll we play is very important to the internet/web as a whole. Our involvement is what makes sure you have a happy and successful experience every time you try to complete a task on the internets. More companies that create web pages need people who do what I do. It's a scary time for us, but there is high demand and I am excited to have my dream job. I always wanted to be an information architect, but i thought it wasn't possible because you need a Masters Degree, or because it was something "really smart" people do, but I kept trying because I wanted to at least be able to say I tried. Then it turned out I actually had a real knack for a certain part of it, the Usability part, just like I had a certain Knack for HTML coding. I never planned this life, this career. I just sort of rode the wave by my passions and my needs at the time, and it led me here and I am very happy.