My Story
My story starts in the suburbs of New Jersey about an hour south of New York City. I was a terrible student not because I didn’t try, (well eventually it was because I stopped trying) but because I was dyslexic, which was only discovered when I went to college to continue my training for a career in dance.
Because I didn’t process information the way the school delivered it, I was immediately written off as stupid and then later as a behavioral problem. I couldn’t fall in line like the other kids, so they threw me in a special ed class. That didn’t work. I was out before the end of the period. Then I was just out. Skipping school. Dating a Dead Head. And, dancing.
As I was leaving ninth grade and headed into high school, my older brother was going to be a senior, so milestone years for both of us. My dad, who I know was worried about what would become of me, brought home two copies of a book, If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’ll Probably End Up Somewhere Else. He handed one to my brother and the other to me and asked us to read it.
I honestly don’t remember what happened after that other than to say, I didn’t read it. Not until years later when I was speaking at a conference did the moment with my dad and brother occur to me as I took in the reactions of the audience during my introduction and bio. I explained how I started out as a dancer which led me to the a career in the cosmetics industry (due to my stage make up experience,) which led me to grad school at NYU, which led me to Wall Street as a corporate trainer, which led me to my own consulting company that provided business writing services mostly to the fashion and finance industries, which led me to authoring a book for McGraw Hill about workplace communications and blogging for Psychology Today and Huffington Post, which led me to starting a second company in the wellness space using flexibility training from my dance knowledge, which led me to creating a natural body (and lip gloss) line, handmade in my kitchen. Some faces showed genuine intrigue, others looked amused. I told them about the book and when they heard the name of it, the room broke out in laughter. I followed with the fact that my brother did read the book, got a job out of college, went into finance, and stayed in finance.
Then I ran into some health problems and had to press pause on all of it.
Now I’m back to writing after a long unwanted pause foisted upon me after I had surgeries in my abdomen and pelvis which led me through over a decade of chronic, unrelenting pain.
So I write, picking up where I left off, but this time not about workplace and business communications. This time it’s about love, truth, relationships and the wholeness of spirit. I hope you'll take the next step on this extraordianry ride with me. I still don’t know where I’m going but I do look forward to discovering where I'll land.