Me? I never thought my story was all that interesting personally...

I've been a graphic designer for longer than I will ever admit to... How I got started is sort of interesting. I began college as a music major, my mother always wanted me to be a high school music teacher and she was paying for my education so I had to major in what she wanted me to be. "Oh your good at music, you should do that" is what she would say. I hated it. I did it and I made good grades in college because that was what was expected of me, but I hated it. So eventually, in my junior year, I dropped out. I couldn't deal with hating someting so completely. Then too, the university I was attending was just like high school all over again. I had to have 4 English credits, 1 Math credit, 3 History credits, etc... and I was very unhappy. So I quit. And I took some time off for myself. Do I regret that? Not really.

Then I got funding to attend the college I wanted to go to in the first place: Drury College. All of my credits transferred over and I started classes there. But I was lost. I had no direction. I didn't know what I wanted to DO with my life. I had a professor I enjoyed very much despite not doing well in his class and explained my dilemma to him. He recommended I see the Career Center for assistance, so I did.

Billions of years ago before the internet we had these ancient parchments called "paper" and these primitive tools called "pencils" so using a provided paper and a pencil I answered a long series of questionairres provided to me by the Career Center. The questionnaires were free, the service was free and the results of these questionnaires would help me to determine what I should do with my life: aptidude tests, personality and temprament tests and all sorts of psychological profiles comprised these tests.

The results took 2 excruciatingly long weeks to receive and when I did, there was a "Top Ten" list of things I should consider.  Architect, cartographer, photographer, graphic designer, and I don't remember the other choices because I was suddenly interested. "What does a graphic designer do?" So I went to meet the man who would ultimately be my design mentor, Mr. Dudley Murphy.

When I met him, I was informed that "Women don't make good graphic designers" and he dismissed me. EXCUSE ME? I didn't know if this was some really horrid test I was supposed to pass like walking on hot coals to impress the cheif of a primitive tribe or if it was his honest opinion of women... so I went to speak to his peers. Nope. It was actually a little bit of both. His wife was also a designer and she ran their business outside of school but he also for the most part didn't believe that women made good designers. The next 4 year of my life, I worked harder than any other design student to impress this guy, often sacrificine sleep in favor of getting projects finished on time. It was more than a full time job but in the end, it paid off, I got my degree and of course there is more but those are just details.