No, I don't mean "past lives" in the sense of whether or not I was someone else a few centuries ago (I don't believe in that stuff, by the way). I mean what I was before what I am now. You see, I have had the happy facility of being able to reinvent myself every five to ten years.

Here I am in 1982 being sworn in as an Ensign in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. I began as a very green Yeoman Third Class, made it to First Class, and then got my commission.

I haven't been idle in the years between FSU and UNF. I've been a librarian. I've worked in federal civil service, for the Internal Revenue Service. I've done clerical jobs. At the end of the 1970s, I got an associate degree in nursing from Florida Community College at Jacksonville. I've been in the United States Coast Guard, both enlisted and officer. I've been and am a writer, having produced a critical history and episode guide to the television show Hawaii Five-0, published in 1997 by McFarland & Co.

My latest iteration is as a genealogist -- I'm close to completing studies through the University of Toronto -- yes, that's Canada -- in genealogy. It's all online, in a program devised by the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, also in Toronto. It is a non-degree program in which I already have my basic, intermediate, and advanced certificates in General Methodology and my basic and intermediate certificates in American Records. I only need two more electives to finish my advanced certificate in American Records. Then I'll go for certification from the Board for Certification of Genealogists.

This is probably my last iteration, as the actuarial tables are not in my favor at this point. But I'm planning on hanging around for another 20 years, anyway, so I ought to be able to unearth a goodly number of bodies in that amount of time.

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