I’ve always said that I have one of the more unique reasons for starting to scrapbook.

I started creating my own albums when I was in high school because of an “epiphany” I had several years earlier.  I remember sitting straight up in bed one Saturday morning when I was about 10 years old.  I had decided what I was going to do with the rest of my life.  This was a big deal for me.  Before that time, I had varying interests which put me in a different career path every day of the week – a firefighter one day, a teacher the next, a florist, a ballerina, etc.  I had finally decided that I was going to become the President of the United States.  I had two very specific reasons for this decision.  The first was that I wanted a job in which I could help a lot of people.  When you are 10, you figure that the President makes laws and these laws make everyone happy.  The second reason is that I was a huge Princess Diana fan.  I figured if the Reagans could go to her wedding, if I was the President, I could be her friend and I felt like she needed a friend.

As a fan, I collected books about the Princess.  A few years into this dream, it hit me – someday people would be writing books about me.  I started scrapbooking because I wanted these books to be interesting.  Ironically, my early scrapbooks do not include journaling and therefore lack a good bit of “the real story”.  I truly believed for about eight years (until soon after I left for college and realized I was far too honest for politics) that I would someday be the President of the United States.  While my dream of even meeting Princess Diana was sadly dashed in 1998, my desire to have a job that helps a lot of people has been realized.  15 years ago today, I signed up as a Creative Memories Consultant.  Through Creative Memories, I am doing a job that can have a positive effect on people’s lives every day by helping them tell their story and the story of those most precious to them.