My First Job

"For my first job I was an usher in a summer stock theater in Arden, Del., a little artists' community. I had just turned 16, and I absolutely loved it. My job was to greet people, take their tickets and show them to their seats before the curtain went up.

"It was a real growth experience for me. I remember my mother kind of pushed me into it because I was so shy. It was a chance to step out of myself, and it forced me to meet and greet other people.

"What inspired me the most was the tremendous personal integrity the actors had. They gave 150 percent every night. I mean it was a little town in Delaware, for goodness' sake, about as far away from Broadway as you could probably imagine. But it didn't matter whether it was a full house or only a quarter of the seats were filled, they gave so much in every performance.

"That job taught me about dress codes and how important it is to present a certain image and make a good impression on your customers. The other thing I learned was how much you can get with a smile. You can change people's attitudes just by smiling and saying 'good evening.' I used to play a little game with myself. When people came in grumpy, I'd do whatever I could do to try to get a little smile out of them by the time they got to their seat, and I almost always could."

-As told to Lauren Bernaldo