The Corner Booth

#5 Questions ARE Answers: The Importance of Curiosity

High Five: Meet the panel

Sarah Benson: @SarahBensonBooks

Mary L. Tabor: @maryltabor

Brittanie Charmintine: @BrittanieCharmintine

*Special guest-Taran Matharu: @TaranMatharu

Our show runner for The Corner Booth:

Nat Bradford: @natsaninja

Nat: Woody Allen once said, "In my next life, I want to live my life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then, you wake up in an old people's home feeling better every day. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then, when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day. You work for 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born. And then, you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila! You finish off as an [Aahhhh]!"

In the spirit of that quote, I'd like you to tell us about your life in reverse, highlighting these bullet points:

-Your worst job

-An awkward relationship while you were in school

-A childhood injury that makes you question your intelligence

Brittanie: My worst job was when I worked at a fast food restaurant, the manager. Awkward relationship. There was this boy who was athletic and attractive and I got flustered around him. Apparently I thought a good way to flirt with him was to tell him I was an alien. My childhood injury is the very first time I put on roller skates, I stood at the top of a tall drive way. I fell down and broke my arm.

Mary: I worked for the oil industry for 16 years and was sent to talk with Exxon's head of PR with how to deal with the spill in Alaska in 1989. This incident is now used in school on how to NOT handle a crisis. Relationship, probably the only virgin at age 20 in 1960's. I had a boyfriend who's fiancee showed up at my door to tell me he was engaged. I have not had an injury.

*Taran: I worked as an intern and I was working as a proxy broker. I was given a massive pile of papers with tiny numbers and I had to put them into an excel spreadsheet. It was all I did for a month straight. Pretty sure it didn't even need to be done, it was probably just something that they did to keep me out of their hair. My awkward relationship was more how I started a relationship with a teacher. I was new to the school and I was in class for about a half hour when he suddenly told me to get out. He later called me back in like nothing had happened. Apparently he thought I was putting on a posh accent, when it was really just how I talked. My injury, wasn't really an injury, but I almost died. My family was in Africa visiting family. We were on a beach and my sister fell off a rocky wall, and a family of hippos were about 50 feet away. The mother charged at us as soon as my sister started screaming. I managed to jump down and get her just in time.

Author of Summoner trilogy. The Summoner: Novice is available May 5th

Sarah: I spent a summer as a janitor at a school which was cleaning windows and scraping gum off lockers. When I sat down to think about an awkward relationship I wondered "which one" but an almost relationship was when I worked on a school paper. A guy asked me out and I'd said that I couldn't at the time. I'd later found out that he'd gone around and asked every girl in there. Childhood injury was in fifth grade when I went skiing for the first time. I mastered the bunny hill so my friend suggested I go to the top of the hill. I knew I was way over my head when I started going down. I ended up falling down and cracking my shoulder. My mom was thrilled when I went home.