I don’t believe it matters how long it takes you to find your calling–as long as you find it eventually. I certainly took the long way around to becoming a writer. The path I took–part-time jobs from the seventh grade through college, Merit Scholarship winner, Presidential Scholar, Princeton University dropout, communications technician in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Princeton University graduate, group insurance salesman, underwriter, account executive, management accountant, tax accountant, software installer, systems administrator, computer help desk employee, Unix support provider, web server administrator, online learning systems administrator, and tornado survivor–made me a different writer than I would have been had I skipped any of the stops along the way.