When I was six years old or so and living in Hong Kong, I designed my first book. It was the story of a family: a father, a mother, and three children, the youngest adopted. I crayoned a portrait of each family member on separate 8”x11” lined pages and wrote a few sentences to describe each of them. I stapled the pages together, included a title page, and hence, self-published my first manuscript. Around the same age I also wrote down a list of all the roles I wanted to play when I grew up, and there were at least 30 careers considered. I wish I had those documents today.

Since then, I have journeyed to become everything I hoped to be, even if my clarity and road have darkened along the way. Throughout my elementary years and early summers I performed in school and camp musicals. From there, and in the following order, I have functioned as: a varsity field hockey co-captain, founder of a mentoring program, and yearbook editor at Horace Mann High School in Riverdale, New York; a psychology major and founder, producer, actor, and director for a theatre company at Cornell University; an actor for an Off-Broadway summer theatre program; a pre-medical student at Columbia University; a bookstore clerk; a researcher and project manager for the development of an In Vitro Fertilization Center; an MBA graduate of and commencement speaker for the Yale School of Management; a summer intern for a fund of hedge funds; a healthcare management consultant; a first employee and operations director for an internet start-up; a front desk attendant for a resort/conference center; a retail bank manager; a consultant for a digital arts studio; a development director for a nonprofit affiliated with an Academy Award-winning documentary; a development officer for a community foundation; and, finally, as a real estate copywriter; all before George Stranahan miraculously found me and hired me as a writer for his website and this book. Our kindred peripatetic spirits somehow recognized each other.

Although I have authored two novels, two plays, one screenplay, and a collection of poems, nothing until now has ever been published or available to the public. So thank you, George, for believing. Thank you for helping me to realize my childhood dreams, and through my writing, the enduring ability to discover as many lives as my imagination can imagine.

Nicole Beinstein Strait
March 22, 2009