Like many other frustrated teachers, I found my way into an instructional design career by accident in 1992. Apparently, English teachers never retire, and rather than following the obituaries for job openings, I took a gig writing manuals and audio scripts for a little company in my NC hometown. Things moved along, and I was very fortunate to find myself working with this guy who'd previously been at Hughes Aircraft. He had these odd ideas about this new training technology called "CBT". By 1993, I was working in Authorware and delivering training via CD-ROM. I never looked back. The eventual evolution of CBT to eLearning, and the advent of rapid deployment tools and methodology have changed the paradigm a bit, but that's part of what I love about this work. It's never the same for very long... always something to learn and adapt. I'm no expert, but I've met and worked with an awful lot of them (especially on the Internet). Seriously though, I've learned a lot in my career, and look forward to learning more through interactions with other Instructional Designers, developers, and teachers.