As a little girl, I played school with my dolls instead of house; throughout my high school education, I pursued every business class possible in hopes of pursuing an office manager career.  Mrs. Dudley was a tremendous influence on my high school success, she taught business education.  When I went to Central Washington University, I met with the chairmen of both the business management and business education departments.  Dr. Byrd, who was the business education chairman, said something that made a lot of sense to me.  He shared that if I pursued a degree in education, I could still use that knowledge in a business career.  It gave me choices and that influenced my decision greatly to pursue an education degree.  Now, 18 years later, I continue to be thankful for those influences and truly enjoy going to "work" each day.