At 5 years old I told my mother I wanted her to buy me Silly Sand. I must have seen the kid’s product advertised on a cartoon show on TV. She didn’t want to. So I told her I was going to go out and buy it myself.

Mom should have known then she wasn’t dealing with a normal kid.

In college I toyed with having a double major in English and Business. Scrapping that idea I graduated on time in four years with a BA in English and a Minor in Marketing.

Since the 1980s I’ve known what a target market is. Having taken marketing, retailing, advertising, and consumer behavior courses.

As a professional librarian today I check out business books shelved in the 658s and books about the economics of business in the 338s.

I search for these books on the library catalog limiting the copyright date to the current year 2022. In one burst I placed on hold 13 business books that were published this year. They’re being sent to me all at once.

Though Working Assets has just been published my goal is bring out a second career book within two years. To give peers tons more competitive information that picks up where the first guide left off.

In June 1987 I had graduated from the local public university where I lived. That fall I had a breakdown and couldn’t go straight to work. My goal at the time was to obtain a full-time job and live independently apart from “the system.”

I was a radical to believe this was possible. At a time when others though recovery wasn’t possible.

At 23 years old I had no role models for what I wanted to do. Without a blueprint I was sent out into the world to make my way. After my failed first career in corporate insurance offices burst into flames I went back to school to obtain a Masters’ in Library and Information Science.

Your dreams are beautiful and so are you.

A friend once described me as “a beautiful dreamer.” In Emotion by Design Greg Hoffman is a cheerleader for beautiful dreamers like me who ask “What if?”

Long before I read this in his book I had written a blog entry telling followers to keep asking “What if?” and “Why not?”

Reading Emotion by Design I’ve become hot to celebrate the distinct voices of the peers who are in my target market.

It’s 2022. Too late in the history of America to not speak out on the things that matter to us. Publishing Working Assets was my humble attempt to create economic justice for peers who traditionally were shut out of the workforce.

That’s a tall order for one person to undertake. I’m a tiny person with a loud mouth. I’m also Sicilian–so it makes sense that I would be stubborn and think I could do this.

In coming blog entries I want to give a human and person-centered spin to my belief that recovery is possible for the peers I’m writing blog entries and books for.

I was a person who believed in myself when no one else did. With the support of my family, therapist, and doctor I defied the odds.

Giving others hope for healing and having your version of a full and robust life has been my motivation for everything I do as an Advocate.

The UNCF had TV commercials in the 1970s that touted: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” A life is a terrible thing to waste too.

In the coming blog entries I’m going to touch on the theme of recovery in more detail.