Email I sent yesterday, responding to an email from an art teacher from my high school

Dear Mrs. Mayhew,

Thank you so much for including me in your survey; it flatters me to think that I was one of your promising art students. However, I don't think I qualify for the survey because I did not major in art, am not currently an artist, and do not live in the US. But here is a little story about me that I hope will substitute.

When I was at NMH, there were three major activities I participated in: art, choir, and the Bridge [school newspaper]. I did not do any of these things in college but seem to have resumed them after college. I majored in communication at Northwestern Univ. (which is not related to journalism at NU), and after graduation jumped from temp jobs to part-time jobs for about 1.5 years, as I still did not know what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Then I got this crazy idea to start my own origami business, as in actually making simple things out of paper and selling them for money. No one thought it would work and I had doubts about its viability, but I knew I wanted to try, so I got started right away. Initial investment was about $600. Fast forward 3.5 years, I had completed huge origami projects for Tiffany & Co., J. Jill, Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Neiman Marcus, and hundreds of individuals through my online store. 2007 was one of the most fulfilling years of my life thus far because of all the business I got to slave over and my wonderful supportive customers. By the way, I never considered myself an "artist" by any means, just a crafter and businesswoman.

During this time I also sang in amateur choruses and took voice lessons, thinking that being a professional chorister would be the greatest job ever someday, since I didn't plan on doing origami forever. Then I suddenly had to move to Hong Kong this April and therefore close my business, which was actually fine because I was ready for something new. It's not easy being a one-woman production line, and copycats were creating a lot of competition.

I moved (back) to Hong Kong and found a job as editor at a magazine, which really means I literally write almost the whole magazine, and I love this desk job more than any I've had – which isn't saying a lot… but anyway I am grateful for all the art teachers, Sheila Heffernon (choir) and Jim Block (newspaper) for pushing me and preparing me for not being a banker, because to me, [banking] is a fate worse than unemployment!

Here is the link to my old business, which has some photos of what I had done.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to spell this all out, that this is what I gained from NMH.

Sincerely,