It didn't take long after graduating from law school and passing the bar exam to realize I wasn't cut out to be a lawyer. Why I couldn't have figured this out a few student loans sooner, I really don't know. But what I did learn for sure was that lawyering didn't seem like a fun way to spend a career. Since then, just about every lawyer I've met has confirmed this for me, in one way or another.

Over the next two or three years, I churned through several more things that didn't seem like fun ways to spend a career. But isn't life strange? Before throwing my life away on some ghastly occupation, I made a startling discovery about myself - something that would really change things. In a fit of inspiration, I realized...I hate to work! and why in the world would I want to do something that would make me miserable for the rest of my life? What a breakthrough! What a release!

Some days after getting in touch with my inner self I came to the realization that I wasn't exactly home free. And yet, wasn't it really only a matter of finding something that paid the bills, but wasn't actually like work? "So, what am I really good at?" I asked myself. Nothing in particular leapt to mind. "OK then, what do I like to do?" Easy. From the first dime won at the dinner table for cleaning my plate as a child, to cherished memories of my grandmother's delectable southern cooking, I have always greatly enjoyed (and excelled at) eating.

It wasn't much of a leap from there to writing about food for Cuisine magazine and later on, editing cookbooks for Better Homes and Gardens. Today, I work as a freelance food and wine writer and spend an ever-increasing amount of time in Europe, in particular, at our home in France, where I love to visit nearby farms and vineyards, learning all I can about the passion and care it takes to produce some of the world's finest foods and wines. Among my current clients, I continue to write copy and develop recipes for Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks, as well as other Meredith corporation magazines and publications. I also write a monthly wine column called Ask the Wine Geek for Relish magazine. In addition to writing. I lead a few tours each year for small groups of food and wine lovers. And best of all, since that momentous discovery years ago, I haven't worked a day in my life.