My parents had no clue about careers. Mom was a waitress, Dad a steelworker. They had "jobs." Mom's biggest goal for me was to "get an education," because "they can't take that away from you."

In spite of my being a shy unpopular bookworm, my Mom thought I should go into "Personnel" which is what "Human Resources" used to be called in the '60s.

I graduated at the top of a class of over 500 kids in a working class suburban public school. I scored in the 95th percentile on the SAT. Yet the male guidance counselor suggested a community college for me. After all, girls in the '70s were presumed to be seeking nothing but an Mrs. degree.

I had no clue what I wanted to "be" other than a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. I had no one to explain that being a journalist involved talking to people, not exactly my forté.

My high school girlfriends and I have often said over the years that we were an entire lost generation of talent, shunted into jobs and careers well below our talents and aptitudes. A loss for us and for society.