Michele McDowell:  

Life doesn't turn out as you expect, that's for sure! While I have a great life it is certainly different than I thought it would be. When I was young I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher and get married and have kids. When I arrived at college they were closing down schools and laying off teachers so those "older and wiser" advise me to find a different field. Most of the things I was interested in the social sciences required a Master's degree and I wanted to be done with college in fours years and start making money and stop studying. No way was I going to get an advanced degree. So I ended up studying business. Now my goal was to graduate, make money, climb the corporate ladder, buy a house on the beach and a sports car and then get married and have kids. After graduating college, I went to work in the Silicon Valley and the first recession hit. I survived three layoffs in 18 months, work week reductions, and pay cuts. I found after a couple of years I was always looking for an excuse to take a day off and I didn't want to spend the rest of my life like that. So after much soul searching I decided to quit and go back to school for my teaching credential, but again those "older and wiser" counseled me not to go into teaching as there was no prestige or...Expand for more