A Master's in the Arts at Yale seems fancy enough, but I feared it was a one-way ticket to waiting tables in Manhattan. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with waiting tables. It’s an honorable and skilled profession. But I’m an introvert at heart, and so, I became a ghostwriter.

My first job was helping someone with their memoir. The subject matter was difficult, but there was something inside of me that automatically knew what to do. You see, I got my Master's in Theater Arts. I spent decades studying stories and then living in them … for a living. That’s a pretty exciting profession, and also pretty terrifying. This whole other side of me clicked when I wrote other people’s stories.

Shakespeare is grand and all, but most people have a story just as exciting, if not more so. Everyone has a hidden journey. As a ghostwriter, I’ve met the most fascinating people on earth. My job allows me to really know them. It’s a vulnerable process. What strikes me most is that each person is a world unto themselves, with so many other worlds kicking around their world.

Really, life is a creative act, it seems. Quitting a job is a creative act, falling in love, or moving to a new town. Each choice is creation. Sometimes we make our own poetry, and other times we feel like some larger power is writing the script. Ultimately, you find yourself looking at it all and asking, “How did that happen?”

Sometimes, telling a story (or shedding a story) is a way to usher in the next story. The journey continues, and that’s an amazing cycle.