While visiting my parents a few weeks ago and feeling bored (since they were playing with
my daughters), I started going through one of my photograph albums I had kept as a child.
Unlike my daughters whose bursting digital albums have documented their every step from
infancy, the fact that I was born in the 1970s meant there are pictures mainly from birthdays,
trips, and holidays. Since I’ve often looked at them throughout the years, I remember most of
them. But this time, one of the pictures caught my eye. In it I’m four or five years old, in
kindergarten, and we are celebrating Hanukah. For the first time, I noticed that the
kindergarten teacher had pinned an ornament on my blouse that was the spitting image of a
yellow star. I guess my career was determined right then and there, without my even knowing
it.