photo by Caitie McCabe

I am very pleased to present you with this month’s payday. This is Chris Grace. Chris is an improviser, rugby player, teacher, stand-up comedian, podcast-creator, video-maker, Chipotle-lover (right, Chris?), web-tech-er and cat dad. And I think that might just be the first half of the list.

I remember seeing Chris Grace perform improv when I first started hanging out at the PIT five years ago. He’s one of the funniest, most capable improvisers I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch and I think I speak for many of the performers who’ve come through the PIT when I say that we’ve all learned a lot by watching him play. He makes it look really easy. (And it’s not always that easy.)

I’ve never seen him play rugby, do stand-up comedy or hang out with his cats, but my guess is that he’s pretty good at that stuff too. Aside from his status as a renaissance man, he’s also very nice, quick to laugh and is a great conversationalist.

You can see Chris perform on Wednesday nights at the PIT, with his team, The Faculty. And you should visit his website where you can find his videos, podcasts, newsletters, Twitter, info about upcoming shows and an up to the minute local weather report. (Nah, there’s no weather report. But there could be.) I have recently become a fan of his podcasts which are silly, sometimes rambling, sometimes very informative and always interesting.

So as I’ve been motivated by a recent push he’s made in his life to generate more creative content this year than he ever has before, I wanted to ask him the payday questions. He maintains a desk job while he does SO MUCH other stuff with his life and that alone is inspiring.

Here are his answers to the payday questions. It’s a good one, you guys. Enjoy the read:

1. How do you earn a paycheck?
I make some of my money from teaching improv and commercials, but I make the rent as a deskbound web developer.

2. Do you enjoy what you do to earn a paycheck?
I like web work, and it’s cool that I get paid for it, but it’s really just a hobby of mine that happened to be a job. I’ve done it for long enough to know that it’s not a passion of mine. On top of that, the place I currently work is a soulstomping bureaucracy.

3. How did you get the job?
Through an online friend. She needed an assistant and I submitted my resume. This is back when online friends didn’t try to murder you.

4. Did you go to college and if so, what did you study? I got a theater degree. I’m not sure if I would do this again in retrospect… some of the training has been useful, but I’m still paying it off, and I’m not sure if the skills I got there couldn’t have been learned here in New York or simply through experience (without 15 years of student loan payments to follow).

5. If you could have any job in the whole entire world, assuming you’d instantly, miraculously possess the the training, opportunities, and expertise to excel at it, what would you do? Ack. That sound you just heard was some minor explosion of anxiety inside of me at the thought of choosing between being a Los Angeles Laker, late night talk show host, or starting flyhalf for a World Cup-winning rugby team. Of course, most of the time I avoid that anxiety because two of those options are wholly impossible, based on the current state of my… body.

6. If you didn’t have to earn a living – money was no object, but you had to be productive for 8 hours a day, what would you do?
I would create things… films, plays, stories, clubs, communities, meals.

7. What are your hobbies and interests?
Aside from performing, which in the end I consider more of a career than hobby, I love sports (basketball and rugby in particular), technology, video games, and food. I think the big interest that is the umbrella for everything is that I am really interested in learning.

8. How do you spend your free time?
I either noodle around eating, napping, and playing games while I think about being productive, or I get stuff done creating things while in the back of my mind I look forward to noodling.

9. What do/did your parents or guardians do to earn livings?
My dad was a nuclear engineer and my mom helped him run some of their independent businesses, which included a grocery store, a few restaurants, and a mobile home park.

10. What was the conversation or climate surrounding work and work ethic in your home when you were growing up?
“When you come home at the end of a day of working, you should be so tired that you only have energy to collapse into bed.” I have both incorporated and fought against this my entire life. My dad often substituted working long hours for working smart. That said, I do think a consistent application of work and practice is invaluable for developing skills. But I feel the idea that success is “earned” through sweat equity is sometimes dangerous in the amount of judgment and resentment you carry around when people get ahead of you. I don’t think it’s useful to see people’s ups and downs through the perception of who deserves what based on how many dues they have paid. I think this reverence for “hard work” also leads people like me to abhor self-promotion, with the idea that you just do your best and wait to get noticed. That’s one of the traits that I’m consciously working to change in myself.

11. How does your family feel about how you earn a living today?
My mom would definitely like me to succeed on a creative level, I’m pretty sure she’s indifferent to the jobs I do just to get by. My dad for some reason doesn’t think my web job is stable or something and keeps asking me to live with him in South Carolina while I get a computer science degree and find a girl to marry. There are at least four things wrong with that idea.

12. Do you have siblings and if so, what do they do for a living? Do you have a personal reaction to what they do, like maybe you’re envious or inspired?
One of my sisters is a television news reporter in Houston, the other works in alumni fundraising at a college, and my brother does IT work. I figure we’re all pretty good reliable people and on some level we each found a groove that keeps the lights on.

13. Generally, what time do you go to sleep? What time do you wake up?
I go to sleep around 1 am and get up about 8:45. I’m specifically trying to do 1:10 to 8:40 to keep things in 90-minute increments, which I heard is your natural sleep cycle. I have no credibility in this department because I basically just do whatever I read on web sites. For example, I just bought a bottle of pills called “Wake Up On Time” because it had a picture of a rooster on it.

14. Do you want to leave your current job for something different? If so, can you imagine yourself doing this? If so, will you do it?
I’d like to quit this job and make my living fulltime from creative efforts. My plan is to do this next summer (2010) after I’m out of debt. If we get universal health care before that it might happen sooner, but I’m not holding my breath.

15. What is more important to you in a job? a big paycheck or personal fulfillment.
Fulfillment. Simply put, I want to wake up looking forward to my day.

16. Do you think your idea of personal success has changed since you entered the work force?
No, I pretty much always knew these day jobs were not the end goal. For a few years I lost sight of what I really wanted to do but my focus is sharp these days.

17. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
For a long time I thought about being President. I liked the idea of giving speeches that connected with people. It wasn’t a sense of being all-powerful, but there was an appeal to leading people through your own vision, the spark of which I think still informs my passions today. I love the process of creation, the moment when you put a sequence of words together that really clarifies a thought. Or you throw some stuff on the wall and it turns out better than you expected; it came from inside of you but you couldn’t have consciously done it.

This is my good friend Jess. Jess and I don’t actually *know* each other, at least not in person. We met online. We were in the throes of our weight loss journeys right around the same time and bumped into each other a lot on the Weight Watchers message boards. Soon after that, Jess began writing a weight loss blog, which I began religiously reading. And soon after that, I started blogging about my weight loss journey too. And the rest is history! We’ve been blog and email buddies for years, all thanks to our efforts to be healthier people.

As you may imagine, there’s an amazing community of internet-savvy women who are trying to lose or who have lost a great deal of weight. I’ve gotten to *know* a handful of these ladies over the years and it’s been such a positive experience. When you’re really heavy and trying to lose what seems to be an unimaginable amount of weight, it’s very easy to feel misunderstood in your day to day life. Your husband or boyfriend / wife or girlfriend probably doesn’t understand. Your parents probably don’t understand. Your friends are probably mostly slender, or at least have bodies you’d kill to have, no matter how much they like to complain about their thighs. So to use the internet to find one person, let alone dozens, who can not only relate to exactly how it feels to be you, but who can also offer hints and tricks, a shoulder to cry on, motivation by example, or who will lend an ear about any subject is invaluable while on the journey from overweight to healthy.

Jess has been one of those people for me over the years. I go to her blog first thing every workday, eager to read about her recent experience with exercise, the fancy dinner she cooked last night, any boy stuff that’s going on in her life and anything and everything in between. She inspires me, makes me laugh and is wise beyond her years.

Jess’ weight loss blog is private, but she also keeps a running blog called See Jess Run about her experiences as a runner. And a lifestyle blog called Chicks on Chicks, which she writes with a girlfriend.

Her answer to the payday questions follow:

1. How do you earn a paycheck?
I work for a company called PRN (Premier Retail Networks). We produce television programs that play at retail — the company is based in California, but Best Buy is a client, which is why they hired me. I live and work out of my home in Minneapolis and manage the Best Buy account (BBY is headquartered here). We operate just like a normal television network: we hire Neilson each year to do a viewership study, sell advertising, and have a diverse mix of programming (sports, entertainment, nature, etc. It’s an interesting job for me, because my background is in retail marketing and event marketing… this is very different.

2. Do you enjoy what you do to earn a paycheck?
Yes. I love the people I work with, and my clients are great. I have the best boss in the world. I love officing out of my home, because it gives me the flexibility to live a balanced life and accomplish my other, non-work goals. I lost 60 lbs and trained for a marathon mostly because of the flexibility of this job. Right now I struggle with the fact that my job is more technical than creative, but hopefully that will change soon! I like that I have a ton of responsibility and get to work directly with one of the biggest retailers in the world. The work I do can be seen on a daily basis in pretty much every major city in the US, and that’s kinda cool. But I do have a daily conversation with myself where I ask, “Do I love the JOB? Or do I love the LIFESTYLE that the JOB allows?” I’m still trying to figure that out.

3. How did you get the job?
Oddly, on Monster.com! I was working for Musicland at the time (Sam Good, Suncoast stores), which used to be owned by Best Buy. We were rolling out a similar program in Sam Goody, with a competitor of PRNs. I was on the roll-out team. So when I saw this job posting, it seemed to perfect — very few people have the specific experience becasue it’s such a niche industry, and I had it all. The man who became my boss basically offered me the job during the interview. We clicked.

4. Did you go to college and if so, what did you study?
Yep. I went to Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, I started as a music major, and ended up with an English lit degree. Really, I majored in extra-curricular activities.

5. If you could have any job in the whole entire world, assuming you’d instantly, miraculously possess the the training, opportunities, and expertise to excel at it, what would you do?
I’d be Britney Spears. I’m only sort of kidding. When I was a kid, music was my passion and my life, and I thought FOR SURE I’d be a pop star / actress someday. On some days, that still appeals to me (Usually those days involve a lot of booze and karaoke night). I think I’d be a therapist. Or a writer / columnist. But one that was really successful so that I didnt have to change my lifestyle in terms of financial needs.

6. If you didn’t have to earn a living – money was no object, but you had to be productive for 8 hours a day, what would you do?
My first reaction was to say “I’d write,” but I don’t know if I could do that for 8 hours each day. I think I would probably love to be a writer / columnist, and be at the stage of my life where I was also a wife / mother. THat would allow me the flexibility to do something I’m passionate about, and also “run the family,” the way my mom did. Soccer mom.

7. What are your hobbies and interests?
Reading, writing, decorating, cooking, weight loss / nutrition topics, running, taking the time to care for my friends and family.

8. How do you spend your free time?
At the gym, working on my house, cooking…

9. What do/did your parents or guardians do to earn livings?
My parents ran a small medical device distribution company together for the majority of my childhood, and my mom was the office manager. The same year I went away to college, my dad went back to get his MBA and also started working for a major medical device company — in sales & marketing. My mom stopped working outside of the home at that point (they closed their business), and focused on volunteering and what I call “running the family.” My dad rose very quickly through the ranks of a huge corporation, Guidant, and ultimately became the EVP of sales. He brokered a deal for Johnson and Johnson to buy Guidant, which ultimately didn’t happen (Boston Scientific bought them instead), and at that point he took an early retirement. But he “flunked retirement” and got another job as the CEO of a medical startup company, Neochord. Mom still runs the family. And with 3 grandparents in their 90s, and a new grandchild, that’s a pretty big job. I think she works harder than he does.

10. What was the conversation or climate surrounding work and work ethic in your home when you were growing up?
Interesting question. Because my parents owned their own business, I grew up in a very enterpreneurial environment — and I’ve always wanted to be a business owner myself (I think that’s why I love my current job — all of the joy of self-employment, none of the risk). I had a very strong work ethic — I WANTED a job, and had to argue with my parents to allow me to get my first job when I was about 14 years old. I wanted to work, and I wanted my own money. Oddly, I was only a mediocre student, but I ALWAYS excelled at my jobs.

11. How does your family feel about how you earn a living today?
They feel very good about it, but they know it doesn’t fulfill me spiritually or in terms of feeling like I do something that “Matters.” I think my family is always very interested / curious in what I’ll do next — because I’ve had A LOT of jobs.

12. Do you have siblings and if so, what do they do for a living? Do you have a personal reaction to what they do, like maybe you’re envious or inspired?
My brother, Marc, is also in the business world. He actually works for a company that is exercise / weight-loss focused. I am not envious of the volatile nature of working for a medical start-up company, but his work is focused on a topic I’m incredibly passionate and knowledgable about so yes, I have a lot of envy in that area.

13. Generally, what time do you go to sleep? What time do you wake up?
I am an early bird… I get in bed around 10 and watch the news, and fall asleep. Because I don’t have to commute (other than shuffling across the halway to my home office), I do not set an alarm on most mornings. But I wake up naturally around 6:30 / 7, assuming I am well rested. I love this part of my lifestyle because it sets the tone for me to feel good and be productive each day.

14. Do you want to leave your current job for something different? If so, can you imagine yourself doing this? If so, will you do it?
I’m trying to figure this out right now, as I’m staring down the nose of a pretty intense job offer. That’s all I can really say at this point, other than to sum up my decision by saying… I am not as motivated by money as I once was, and I’m not sure that a big paycheck could “Buy” the quality of life I currently have. In other words.. I’m not sure I’m willing to give up the flexible lifestyle and balanced life for more money. It is weighing very heavily on my mind right now.

15. What is more important to you in a job? a big paycheck or personal fulfillment.
Good question. See above. I know that personal fulfillment is more important to me, however, I”m at the point in my career where a bigger paycheck / better title could set the stage for some very amazing things that would lead to a lot more long-term personal fulfillment… Also, I don’t know that you always have to choose… maybe I WON’T be miserable working in an office again. Maybe I won’t be unhappy having to get up early and commute. I just don’t know. But these are the decisions that keep me awake at night… I’ve never been afraid of change before (I’ve thrived on it), and suddenly I feel paralyzed by it. And it sucks.

16. Do you think your idea of personal success has changed since you were 10 years old? 18 years old?
Yes and no. I grew up thinking that success was defined by money, and I still believe that’s partially true, but only under certain conditions — ie, all the money in the world doesn’t matter if you are miserable, have nobody to share it with, and spend your entire life working at a job you hate. I define success as happiness & fulfilment, but I also think… le’ts be real, you’ve gotta pay the bills, and I’ve grown accustomed to a life that includes vacations, nice things, dinners out, and not having to freak out about every dime.

17. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I went through phases — but the one that I always come back to is that I wanted to be a performer. Mostly I wanted to sing. And in my life now, I’ve found nontraditional ways of doing that. For example, I might not be on a stage, but I “perform” everytime I pitch to my clients. I”ll perform on Monday when I speak at a memorial service. I perform when I help counsel women in a support group I run as volunteer work. KWIM?

We have a slightly different payday today. I’ve agreed to keep the identity of today’s volunteer a secret. I’ve also told him he could skip some of the payday questions to help maintain his anonymity. I like this guy, so I’m granting his request JUST THIS ONCE. But don’t get used to it, Anonymous. I make the rules around here.

Since I can’t talk too much about him specifically, I’ll talk about my relationship with him. Anonymous is a good friend. He’s someone I know I can talk to about practically anything and count on for a thoughtful, patient response, never lacking in blunt honesty. He will tell me when I’m being an idiot, when I need to get over myself, or when I’ve done something really admirable or impressive. He gets it. And whatever ‘it’ is, we like to laugh at it together.

He also happens to be very funny, incredibly smart, and never ceases to surprise me. I met him through improv and I’ve known him for what seems like forever.

His responses to *some* of the payday questions are here:

4.) Did you go to college and if so, what did you study?
I attended a 4-year liberal arts college. I majored in Spanish because I studied abroad in Madrid my junior year and returned with a buttload of Spanish credits. Since I was desperate to leave that school and podunk-college town, I hustled my final year, taking 18 hours and finishing in four years. I then earned a Master’s degree in journalism.
 
5.) If you could have any job in the whole entire world, assuming you’d instantly, miraculously possess the the training, opportunities, and expertise to excel at it, what would you do?
I would be a hybrid comedy writer-reporter-performer-producer. I would be an electrician. An interior designer, a plumber, an architect, a graffiti artist, a carpenter.

6.) If you didn’t have to earn a living – money was no object, but you had to be productive for 8 hours a day, what would you do?
Studio or concert photographer. Movie director. Video editor. Chef.
 
7.) What are your hobbies and interests?
I spend a lot of time studying and performing improv comedy. A few years ago I took a pottery class simply because I wanted to give it a try. It was fun, and I learned how to throw a pot. But after about four months, I was kinda done with it. It felt like I had taken up a hobby just to take up a hobby. My heart wasn’t really in it. When I went full throttle into improv in 2006, it felt right. And I’ve pretty much been at it ever since.
 
8.) How do you spend your free time?
Improv, and hanging out at the bar. I’ve long understood that socializing with friends is the greatest stress relief there is. I go skiing every winter. I watch the idiot box, too. But thanks to the DVR, everything I watch is truly appointment television. I don’t watch commercials anymore. And I try to isolate my viewing to comedy and Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and History Channel. And I limit my reality-TV programming to Bravo. Survivor has snuck through, though.

9.) What do/did your parents or guardians do to earn livings?
My mother started out as a nurse, which is how she met my father. By the time she had her third kid, me, she became a realtor. My father is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
 
10.) What was the conversation or climate surrounding work and work ethic in your home when you were growing up?
My parents are the archetypal immigrants who came to the U.S. for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and of course, fortune. There was never a time when they weren’t working. My father is 70 and still practicing. He spent four years in medical school, another four years in general-surgery training and then eight more years in plastic-surgery training. Regarding my mother, she built a real-estate empire from scratch. When I was a kid, she would drag me around on her errands, which was usually to collect rent, but also made my brother and me paint the properties, dig up tree stumps, plant bushes, tear down rotten-wood fences — you name it. She taught me how to balance a checkbook when I was 9, taught me how to do laundry when I was 13, and taught me how to double-thread a needle to sew on a button when I was 16. She couldn’t drive for shit, but she could parallel park masterfully. I’m glad to say all three kids inherited that skill. But whenever I committed an act of wastefulness, her one admonishment that always made me feel guilty was this: “We work hard to earn our money.” Somehow, that always seemed to stick for me.

11.) How does your family feel about how you earn a living today?
I know they’re glad I got my degree. They still worry about me because I didn’t become a doctor. My parents always believed that the only career choice was that of a physician. I’ve spent most of my life trying to convince them otherwise.

12.) Do you have siblings and if so, what do they do for a living? Do you have a personal reaction to what they do, like maybe you’re envious or inspired?
I have an older brother who is a pediatric emergency surgeon and an older sister who is an obstetrician-gynecologist. I do, and always have, admired them immensely. I’m not envious or necessarily inspired by their occupations, though I’m sure if I were to visit them in their respective operating theaters, I’d be in awe. Same goes for my dad. I’ve never once watched him operate. I have watched him wash his hands at the kitchen sink. Seriously, if you know any surgeons, watch them wash their hands — it’s an impressive display of thoroughness and efficiency.
 
13.) Generally, what time do you go to sleep? What time do you wake up?
I’m a night owl. I don’t fall asleep until well after 2AM. I wake up as early as 7AM sometimes, but I am unable to exit my bed until 9AM on a good day and 10AM on a bad day. On the weekends, I sleep until noon on a bad day, 2PM on a good day.
 
14.) Do you want to leave your current job for something different? If so, can you imagine yourself doing this? If so, will you do it?
Yes. Everybody does. I want to be the one who doesn’t want to leave his job. But I know that I’ll have to create that job.

15.) What is more important to you in a job? a big paycheck or personal fulfillment.
Personal fulfillment.

16.) Do you think your idea of personal success has changed since you were 10 years old? 18 years old?
I never really thought about personal success at those ages beyond the idea of being wealthy. I’ve had the good fortune to work for several truly great men and women. When I left one of my jobs, I gave my boss a book, which I inscribed (approx.): “Until I achieve the patience, humility and integrity that you possess, I will not consider myself truly successful.”

17.) When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A doctor. I grew up with three other boys in my neighborhood who were the sons of a cardiologist, another plastic surgeon and a radiologist. In high school, my friends used to pretend to encourage me as if they were my parents: “You’ll be successful at whatever you choose to do! As long as you’re a doctor!”

This is my family. My grandparents, my aunt, my uncles, and my mom. She’s the cute one in the front in the short-sleeved top. My mom and I have always had a close, if not complicated relationship. We haven’t always liked each other, necessarily. (Me, 14 years old, running up the stairs to my bedroom screaming “I HATE YOU!” comes to mind.) But we’ve always been close, since it was just the two of us.

My parents divorced when I was very young and my mom, a then single mother who was a teenager when I was born, set out to make our lives as normal as possible. I think she succeeded with flying colors, although I’m sure she’d argue with that point with me. Her greatest weakness is not understanding how wise, capable, and courageous she is.

Now a high school guidance counselor, she taught English for 20+ years, and was a favorite, favorite teacher of almost every one I knew in high school. This, for a 14-18 year old, is the equivalent of human torture. The majority of my friends probably hung out with me to get to her. (My uncle and my stepdad also taught at my high school. So.)

She’s young (in her forties still!), fun, funny, she makes great chili and she loves animals. What more could one ask for in a mom.

Her answers to the payday questions were fascinating to me:

1. How do you earn a paycheck?
I earn a paycheck by spending my day with adolescents in their quest for identity and in their mission to outwit authority. 

2. Do you enjoy what you do to earn a paycheck?
BY GOD YES, I enjoy it.

3. How did you get the job?
I believe I got the job because I am not a whiner and I have this absurdly intense work ethic, in addition to genuinely liking teens and intuitively knowing what makes them tick.

4. Did you go to college and if so, what did you study?
Yep, college. Degreed in English Lit and Education. Masters in Multicultural Ed. and Human Services/Counseling.

5. If you could have any job in the whole entire world, assuming you’d instantly, miraculously possess the the training, opportunities, and expertise to excel at it, what would you do?
Exactly this…and training horses.

6. If you didn’t have to earn a living – money was no object, but you had to be productive for 8 hours a day, what would you do? Creating a high risk, high effort program for young teens in order to  introduce the most at risk kids to alternate risk-taking experiences that do not involve drugs and alcohol BEFORE they get involved with drugs and alcohol. I would travel, set up the programs, hire young, exciting folk to work with the kids and then continue to oversee the  work.

7. What are your hobbies and interests?
Exercise, reading, animals, travel, exotic culture, warm climates,  people, music, sleep.

8. How do you spend your free time?
See number 7 and add ‘with my family.’

9. What do/did your parents or guardians do to earn livings?
Dad-educator, farmer, shoe salesmen, referee. Mom-values teacher in the home, therefore she did not “earn a living”

10. What was the conversation or climate surrounding work and work ethic in your home when you were growing up?
“Work hard.” “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” “You can do anything / suffer anything for blank amount of time – whether 10 minutes or 10 years.” We all watched my mom and dad work tirelessly to make our lives better. From dad having 2-3 jobs in addition to teaching, to all of us renovating a house that was crumbling when they bought it, to dad raising cows and working  a soybean farm (again, in addition to teaching full-time), to my mom’s daily volunteer work, we witnessed and experienced  the joy of a good day’s labor.

11. How does your family feel about how you earn a living today?
Not really sure what this question means. Parents take it in stride in that I do earn a living and that is what was expected. I think they are comfortable with my safe/secure choice of how I earn my living. I assume my daughter is happy with my choice in that we were able to have summers for some travel, although since she attended the high school where I taught, that caused some teen angst combined with some sense of power/position in the high school due to “notoriety.” My husband loves that I love my job.

12. Do you have siblings and if so, what do they do for a living? Do you have a personal reaction to what they do, like maybe you’re envious or inspired?
Ironically or maybe dysfunctionally we are a family of educators. No jealousies, only inspiration in hearing their challenges and triumphs.

13. Generally, what time do you go to sleep? What time do you wake up?
Sleep – 9pm. Awake – 6am, but on weekends I awake around 8am.

14. Do you want to leave your current job for something different? If so, can you imagine yourself doing this? If so, will you do it?
No, I do not want to leave my current job.  Only considering retirement to a warm climate soon and will then continue to work with adolescents.

15. What is more important to you in a job? a big paycheck or personal fulfillment.
PERSONAL FULFILLMENT ( and of course the pay is a bonus).

16. Do you think your idea of personal success has changed since you were 10 years old? 18 years old?
Hmmm, “personal success” not sure I ever considered the concept at age 10 or even 18 since I was the youngest of 4 stellar humans and I chose the path of least resistance. By 18 I was pregnant and so my definition became getting sober and raising my daughter. I was successful just living up to my responsibilities. Personal success now? Staying true to my beliefs and to my convictions, living a life of value and selflessness, helping others, setting and achieving goals from exercise to career. BEING HONEST.

17. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a chiropractor upon high school graduation, but after getting pregnant at 18, my mother pretty much decided I needed to be a teacher so I would have the same schedule as my daughter and be able to single-parent better.

…that I’m so excited to post more payday segments! Reading Phil’s answers was so much fun for me. I hope it was interesting for you guys too.

I also sent the questions to a few friends and family members - my mom and my cousin Trisha both got back to me with theirs earlier today and I can’t wait to post their replies. For whatever reason, I am getting such a kick out of learning people’s responses to this stuff. I guess it’s because these are questions that don’t usually come up in casual conversation.

Anyway, please let me know if there are any other related questions you think I should add to the list. Yay!

(Yup. Big dork.)