A: Not at all. I always loved writing and I'd get compliments for it, but I never thought I'd actually write for a living. Even when I created my own magazine on Windows 3.1 and printed out copies for my friends in high school, I did it for fun not because I was serious about persuing that career. Besides, I wasn't sure I could make much money out of it.
In comes Brooklyn Technical H.S. and its requirement that all juniors must select a major for the last two years. I also enjoyed architecture, so I chose it. And when it was time to choose college majors I stuck with it. In fact, I stuck with it long after I hated design class and anything to do with the subject. By that point, I was a year away from graduating and fretting over my uncertain future. I couldn't start over. And I knew any type of architecture job would make me miserable.
I remember sitting on a cliff, overlooking the Hudson River and writing in my journal asking the powers that be to please give me a sign of what I was supposed to do. Graduation was now around the corner and I didn't know where I'd go from there.
In comes an opportunity to write for the campus paper along with pioneering a residence hall newsletter, which then caught on in every other hall on campus. Soon enough, I found myself dedicating more time to the newsletter and its growth than my own architecture projects. (Believe me, it showed.)
The rest has been history in the making.
Image: realsimple.com