"How I got into building websites"

Back in college, I was studying to go to medical school, and majoring in Medical Anthropology, with a focus on indigineous healing systems. To earn money, I worked as a phototypesetter, on Mergenthaler-Linotronic equipment, which involved programming coordinates and font numbers on a black screen. I produced books and worked with large design and architecture firms. Within a short time, the first desktop publishing system was developed, and, I moved over to working on them.

In my last year of college, I had a crisis of conscience, and decided that medical school was not for me. I began to pursue other passions of mine, namely non-profit political work (I worked at the ACLU for two years, and with Amnesty International Group 49 as the newsletter writer and Refugee Coordinator), and art classes (I took glassblowing and stained glass at RISD) and then decided to leave the east coast and head west.

After moving to the Bay Area of California, I continued my exploration, including being a radio reporter, Focus on Women in Music Coordinator and Board Operator for KPFA radio in Berkeley, CA, studying with shamans instead of about shamans, and getting certified in massage and bodywork. I also learned wire wrapping for jewelry making, took photography classes, expressive movement workshops at the Tamalpa Institute, and spent a couple of years in The Painting Experience, which was a very transformative experience for me. During this time, I often earned money with destop publishing, production and typesetting.

Still drawn by the healing arts, I moved to San Diego in 2000 after enrolling in another natural healing course of study. I worked as a Program Director for Hostelling International in San Diego for two years, and then began to work with a Tibetan doctor in the area to learn more about that type of medicine. A main part of both of the jobs I held at this time involved production of graphical and educational material, and work on websites.

In this time, I have discovered that I am happiest when I am working with form, color and clients, and so, a little over a year ago, I decided to hang up a shingle as "website builder".

Voila!