Kristen Colby:  

Life I was a major geek at Tolman, but really changed my life after graduation. After one disasterous, party-filled year at URI, I was asked to take a year off and "rethink my goals", as pre-med students were not expected to get a 1.3 GPA! I decided that I needed to get out of RI and see a bit of the world. I was fortunate to get a job as a stewardess on board the Mississippi Queen cruise ship, and steamboated all over the USA. I transferred to American Hawaii Cruises and worked on board the SS Constitution for a year, and decided to try college again at University of Hawaii. This time I succeeded, and finished a degree in pre-med/microbiology, working on the ship in the summers. My GPA was good enough to help me earn a full tuition scholarship to The George Washington University School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program, in Washington, DC. The summer before I started GWU, in 1990, I spent 4 months in Sydney, Australia, where I worked at the Hard Rock Cafe. In Sydney, I met Steve, who was also doing a working holiday from England. We fell in love, dated long distance for 2 years while I was in DC, and I spent 1991-92 as an exchange student in Hertfordshire, England, with Steve and his family. After graduating in 1993, we got married and moved to Lafayette, LA, where I had been offered a great PA job in pediatrics. I also went back to night school part time and earned a masters degree in health administration from University of St Francis in Chicago (in a distance learning program). I remained there for 7 years, and eventually realized that neither Louisiana or married life were for me. Sadly, we divorced, but we have remained friends. With a new sense of freedom, I spent Y2K trav...Expand for more