“When I grow up I want to be….” Feel free to answer as your 5-year-old self or as of now.

The first time I remember thinking about what I want to do for a living, I was seven years old and flipping through an issue of American Girl magazine. I’d just graduated from Ladybug and it suddenly dawned on me that it was somebody’s job to put together the magazines I loved so much. I knew that I wanted it to be my job.

As years went by that dream stayed alive. In eighth grade I spent a day at D magazine in Dallas as part of a career investigations class at school. At the end of the school year I got into an argument with my guidance counselor as she tried to talk me out of taking journalism classes my freshman year of high school. You should take something you’ll get credit for, like health, she said. Or I can take a class that will set me on my career path, I rebutted.

I took the class and became editor-in-chief of the freshman yearbook. By my junior year I was a senior editor of the high school’s gigantic yearbook and my senior year I was editor-in-chief. I got a scholarship and headed to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. While I was there I interned for breaking-news websites and monthly magazines. Throughout school I dabbled in broadcast journalism and public relations. They didn’t feel right. My first job out of college was for daily newspapers, and now I work for a news site again.

Me with ASU’s mascot Sparky when I was just starting journalism school

Throughout it all, the dream is the same. Of those jobs, my favorites were for the magazines, and the ones where I got to blog. To this day, every decision I make is with the end goal of working in magazines again.

I feel so fortunate that I knew from a young age that this was the path for me. Not everyone is so lucky, but sometimes uncertainty is what keeps it exciting! I don’t know what I’ll end up doing, but I am definitely going to enjoy the ride.

Hello friends! I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Mine was spent in Toronto with wonderful friends, food and new adventures. You’ll be reading about those soon! What did you get up to?

Today’s prompt for the #BlogtemberChallenge is: Write about what makes you happy, from the little joys to the huge game-changers. I’m so excited about this prompt because Happiness is my word of the year for 2014 and something I’ve really been focusing on! It’s so important to think about everything that brings us joy, no matter how small.

A card I got in the mail from my sister

Since I’m fresh off vacation, this post is coming to you in the form of a stream-of-consciousness list, straight off the top of my head. Many of these things are related to my trip!

Behold! Things that make me happy:

• Having friends around the world, who are always ready and willing to meet up and make new memories
• Playing board games
• Going to Major League Baseball games – especially when they end in my favor!
• Being able to call my favorite city in the world my home
• Getting snail mail
• Eating cheesecake
• Getting up early enough to read and have a cup of coffee before work (admittedly this doesn’t happen as often as I’d like!)
• Long weekends
• Binge-watching TV shows that have already ended, so I don’t have to wait months after a cliffhanger (I’m currently working through Gossip Girl)
• The first sip of coffee in the morning
• Taking lots of photos of the same tourist attraction from different angles (anyone who’s seen my photos from Paris knows what i’m talking about)
• Road trips
• Knowing that, if I’m called to live somewhere else, I’m capable of dropping everything and going anywhere – because I’ve done it before
• Writing!

One of many photos of the CN Tower I took this weekend

What makes you happy?

Throughout this month I’ll be participating in Brave Love Blog’s #BlogtemberChallenge, and I am so excited to be a part of it. There will be a daily linkup over at Bailey Jean’s blog, so head over there and meet some new bloggers – I will be! Welcome to anyone who found me through the challenge!

Today’s prompt is: Imagine the front sleeve of a hard cover novel. Give us your “About the Author” so we can get to know one another, and for fun tell us what your imaginary novel would be about.

Such fun! Here goes nothing…

Leigh Anne Zinsmeister was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and has lived all over the United States, from the Midwest to the Southwest to the Northeast. When she’s not moderating Internet comments for a living, she can usually be found spending her paycheck at Trader Joe’s and getting lost on the subway around NYC. That being said, she also spends a lot of time serving at Liberty Church, drinking on rooftops and reading in sunny parks. It’s definitely more good than bad!

Leigh Anne spends her 15 vacation days a year split between visiting friends and family, and exploring new cities and countries. She wants to see and do everything! She also loves food and is a sucker for quality tacos, cheesecake and craft beer – though she’ll eat (and drink!) anything at least once.

Leigh Anne lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her friend Becca and a mouse they call Ratatouille (though he mostly stays in the walls these days).

The author finding her wings in New York City, August 2014

Now as for what my novel would be about, well, that’s an easy one. I started a novel about three years ago now, for a college history class my final semester, and always intended to finish it. Someday!

My novel is a historical fiction work about a character named Katya who is a young woman during the 1917 Russian revolutions. The book chronicles her life throughout the 20th century, exploring Soviet history. Is that the nerdiest thing you’ve ever heard? Possibly, but I am nothing if not a history nerd!

What fun it’s been completing the first day of this challenge! As this post goes live I’m on my way home to NYC from a long weekend in Toronto (a new city in a new country for me AND I got to reunite with friends!), but I’m so excited to link up and get to know all of you!