I went to her (the English teacher) and she said, you know, in that advisory thing that you do when you’re about to graduate from high school, and she said, “What are you thinking of studying in college, Miss Parks?” and I said, “I’m going to study English. I want to be a writer.” I was all excited. And she looked in her grade book, and I got all these F’s in spelling, and she said, “I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to be a writer because you’re such a poor speller.” Probably not the advice one would give today, because of spell-check, but back in the day, that was the prevailing wisdom, as they say. I was brought up to say “Yes, ma’am” and “No, ma’am” and “Yes, sir. No, sir.” Respect of elders and whatnot. So I said, “Yes, ma’am. Okay. Well, I’m not supposed to be a writer because I’m a poor speller.” Fortunately, I was really good in science, and I was really good in physics. I used to ace my physics tests. So I thought, “Well I’ll just be a scientist.” But what you love comes back to you. So I ended up in writing.