1.22.2016

Beyond Babysitting Pt II

Yep, we're revisiting this...

Dawn Schafer:  Like Claudia, Dawn didn't bother with college after high school.  Instead she transitioned from part-time to full-time as a waitress in a vegetarian restaurant on the beach, where she met her first really serious boyfriend.  He got her involved with his group of friends' environmental activism, which included a lot of protesting, drum circles, and weed.  When she was about 22 or so, Dawn got into an argument with a young man at a rally who pointed out that there was never any actual lasting change created through their protests.  Although she scorned him at the time, the confrontation made her re-evaluate her life, and as a result she decided to go to college after all, and pursue a degree in environmental law.  The boyfriend was not supportive of this, and it resulted in an extremely traumatic breakup.  Within the first year of undergrad, she discovered that environmental lawyers tend to work for the "bad guys", and that probably the best way to make a real difference was to study engineering.  Thus began a long, hard road for Dawn, who did not take to science and math naturally.  She was determined, however, and by the time she was thirty she had her master's degree and a job working on developing a wave farm off the coast of California.  In a case of Small World Syndrome, she re-encountered the boy from the rally during her third year at school, and after a tumultuous courtship they married and now have a three-year-old.

Mallory Pike: Mallory got her degree in English Literature from a university in New York, and used the contacts she made there to land an internship at a major children's publishing house.  She soon moved up to assistant, and eventually landed herself a position as a young-adult editor.  She had a nose for what would sell, and was the one who discovered (and contracted) a single-mother author who penned a first novel that would go on to become a huge franchise.  Mallory made enough money from this particular author to set her and her family up for life, and to finally buy herself the horse (and the land to put it on) she'd always dreamed of.  She still writes in her spare time (more for her many nieces and nephews than out of any real desire to publish) and recently made the decision to pursue single-motherhood via artificial insemination.

Jessi Ramsey: Jessi moved to New York her freshman year of high school, to study ballet full-time.  When she was sixteen she was invited to become an apprentice for the company, and at the end of her year was invited to join the company proper.  She accepted, on the condition that she would be allowed to continue her education via private tutor.  After two years in the corps de ballet she rose to soloist, and three years after that became a principal dancer.  She danced until age 28, when an injury forced her retirement.  Never one to wallow, she immediately secured a loan and opened a ballet school in Stonybrook, where she does very well for herself.  She lives there with her partner of six years, and they have a newborn son.

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