(aka who you are is always who you are)When I was 12 years old, I launched  The Mother's Helper News - a two pager, painstakingly typed on my mom's black Underwood. (Am I the only one who can still smell that typewriter ink smell?)A few years back, while helping my mother pack up our childhood home, my sister found the "Premiere Issue" in a box of memorabilia. She had it framed and that Christmas, she gave it to me. A priceless gift - thanks Jen!I have it on my desk - right here, where it reminds me who I was and who I, pretty much, still am. Here's what it says, complete with the typos (because I love them):

April 17, 1969 Dear Mother of a Young Child, How would you like a few hours to yourself to do what you like best? Mothers helper would like to give you that time.Just let you r child come to us for 1-3 hours each Satur day.Just fill in the handy form be low. Send to: Mothers Helper, 19 Wood Rd., Great Neck, N.Y. This care will cost you only 30c an hour.We will help your child to learn many things.Our staff consists of skilled experienced xxx workers. Though we are young we would enjoy helping your child learn to read,write,and spe ll. If you do not want your child to learn to read you may say so on the form.The n we will he lp your child to play games,and we will read stories to him, or, her. If your does not enjoy himself,(which is not very likely because of the many fun things to do) y ou may withdraw him paying only for the time he has stayed. Please give us and xxxx yourself a chance to do what we like best.And,please let us be yo ur frirends.

I was a bit older, 23-ish, and in my last semester of a bachelor's degree in Marketing and Communications, when the professor of my "Audiences and Media" course offered me a job - as an editor (!!!!!!!) in New York (!!!!!!) And that was amazing. The only wrinkle: I'd have to quit school.That's okay, I thought, I'll finish up at night.When that magazine folded, I moved in with my parents and got another editing job, where I discovered that writing movie blurbs was mind-numbingly boring but computer programming was neat.There was a detour of several years during which I worked as a:

• Systems Analyst
• Corporate Trainer
• Human Potential/New Age trainer
• Mommy
• Non-profit Community Organizer
• Small Circulation 'Zine' publisher
• Free lance magazine writer
• PTA President

Now, even though I did not work at magazines during this period, I devoured them - huge piles - dozens a month until, one day, my husband said, "You love magazines so much. Maybe you should work at one." To which, I responded..."Don't tell me what to do I could never be an editor I have no experience I never finished college I don't know anyone leave me alone and mind your own business!"And flounced out of the house in a fury.A few minutes later, I was sitting in Panera Bread with a cup of tea and my journal, and wondering what to do with my life when I noticed an abandoned newspaper on the next table. I picked it up and it fell open to a page of classified ads where I saw this:

Wanted: Magazine Editor....

 I got the job and they put me to work combing through the slush pile for 'real people' stories. In my 15 years with that magazine, I wrote many reader-generated columns - and I got to know our readers pretty well. Not all 1.5 million,  of course - but for the couple of thousand women I did speak with, I was he voice on the phone saying, "We're doing your story!"For the many thousands more, I was the name on the gentle rejection letter: Sorry. Maybe next time. Please don't give up!All the while, as I worked at that magazine, I dreamed of starting my own publication - I also talked about it enough that when I left that job, to pursue my own writing, one of my editors said, "Whatever you do, don't start that magazine. Go write some books."I did, however, start that magazine which I discovered, after only two issues, was too expensive to produce. But I was SO proud of those bound printed pages. I'd made something real - from my own ideas and imagination and .... it felt great! And I wanted more of that feeling - and  the other one: the feeling of being connected with hundreds of other people who were interested in the same things that intrigued me and who were into gathering in circles to connect. I will always be grateful to my friend (and fellow editor) Jamie who told me, "You should write a blog.""What's a blog?" I asked. Yup. Really.I started over here - writing hesitantly at first - I thought EVERYONE was watching and would be reading my first blog post - but once I got started, I loved it.For me, a blog is a mirror, a beehive, a teacher...   A blog is a gathering place, a magnet for the particular sort of people who are into the particular cup of tea you're brewing.People who come to play games,and we will read stories to him, or, her. If your does not enjoy himself,(which is not very likely because of the many fun things to do) y ou may withdraw him paying only for the time he has stayed.