when I grow up...

I never had any desire to be a Marine Biologist, Veteriniarian, Dolphin Trainer, or Ballerina. And I knew quite well that I could not grow up and become a "Princess". That simply is not possible. My childhood dreams were so much more plausible than that.

The first career I can actually remember pursuing was that of a professional iceskater. In the days of skaters getting their knees bashed in with pipes (yes, I was a fan of Nancy Kerrigan) I still believed there was good in the ice skating world and that I would be an active member in this magical skating world. Unfortunately, this phase was shortlived and replaced by a new (and enormous) desire to be an Olympic Speed Skater. This phase was also brief due to skating incompetence and my lack of discipline.

The next logical career path was that of an archaeologist. This came before the Jurassic Park craze, although I will admit that reading the book only intensified my desire to dig for treasures. I had no real inclinations towards Israel or scrolls or mummies. Just dinosaurs. For stricly selfish reasons. The thought of being one of those 'creation/evolution' spokespersons was downright upsetting. I couldn't stomach it. I simply wanted to find really old dead things. I don't know what led me away from the path to archaeology. I just woke up one day with no interest. And that was that.

Shortly after the dinosaur phase, I move to Wyoming and stumbled into my next career path: Barrel Rider. Now, I don't know that I ever really believed this would be a profession for me, but I was going to work hard and be a damn good barrel rider. I would ride those horses around those barrels and break world records, baby. Then I grew up. And broke my arm .(in gymnastics, funny enough. but don't misunderstand. I never set out to be a professional gymnast. I knew from day one that I was way too big for that.) Thus ended my brief affair with the rodeo circuit.

In high school, I finally made up my mind: I WAS GOING TO BE AN ASTRONOMER. I got straight A's, I liked stars, and all my science teachers liked me. Never you mind that I had not taken a single class on astronomy or even read a book on the subject. That mattered little: I was to be the next Gallileo. I looked into all the Southern california Christian colleges (because those two things were my only criteria for school) and Westmont was the only one with a telescope or any semblance of an astronomy program. This posed a problem, since I did not have the funds to attend the likes of Westmont. It was around this time anyway that I realized that I am what some would call a "people person" and that my life's calling probably wasn't to spend my life in seclusion, feverishly writing equations and star gazing.

It must have been in the middle of my astronomy phase that my sister and I started a band - a Christian punk rock band, nonetheless. We were called Agnes United and we were awesome. We played the every Christian venue in Northern California (there are more than you'd think) and even opened for Slick Shoes. I started doing some of our booking, as well as booking bands for the coffee shop/concert venue that my church was running. I liked this newfound music world. And I guess the excitement never really wore off, so here I am, still in the music world. I'm only slightly pissed that I'm not an ice skater.