Maryellen Fleming-Hoffman:  

Life Hi Everybody! The Q & A seems to be a little rigid and unforgiving in it's answer choices so I thought I'd add a few highlights. After school I attended UMO for several semesters trying to figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. A year and a half later I figured out that Orono was not the place for me. (The University assisted me in this decision by releasing me to seek opportunities elsewhere). I moved to Augusta (Maine) and worked for the state for a number of years as a medical research librarian with the Department of Human Services. In my free time I sang and played flute with the Augusta Symphony and was about as physically active as a mushroom. In late 1991 the Governor started cleaning out positions that he thought were un-needed and he eliminate my position and released me to seek out opportunities elsewhere.....(are you beginning to see a pattern?) At that point I thought I'd go back to school, so I applied and was accepted at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. I did the interview, site visit, got my class list, and visited the dorm where the "older" students resided hoping to be able to get a room, because at the ripe old age of 26 I was considered an "older learner". But I wouldn't start until September 1992, so I need to find something do until then. I answered an ad in the Portland paper that read, "Come work in a room with a view" and was hired as a retail clerk at Grand Canyon National Park. I moved most of my belongings into my folks attic, packed two suitcases and went to Arizona. And I've never looked back..... In the 15 years that I've b...Expand for more