Studio 360

A Christmas gift given to me in 1997 by my oldest brother John changed my life. The book, Mike McIntyre's "The Kindness of Strangers," is an account of his penniless hitchhiking trip from the West to East Coasts. I read the book in one sitting and knew what I had to do. In the spring I graduated from college, packed a back pack and set out from my parents' front porch on the Jersey Shore for the Pacific Ocean - penniless.

I eventually reached the "other side." But not before meeting the kindest people - who shared all that they had with a wandering stranger.

The "work of art" that changed my life was a bird. I had a very stressful job a few years ago. In order to survive it, I began walking in the woods near home before going into the office each day. One morning, my path crossed with a birding group, and one member was looking up at a singing bird on a branch in front of her. She was crooning to herself (and to him, a lovely spring-clad Baltimore Oriole, singing his heart out) "Oh, you ARE a beautiful bird". As I walked by, I looked up at the bird, and the birder said "Would you like to use my binoculars?" One look and I was hooked. I can't explain it because I'd never noticed birds before, but I was smitten. I joined the local bird club, went on bird walks to learn from others, signed up for Cornell's home-study ornithology course -- and ultimately became so concerned about birds and their habitats that I talked myself into a job at the Wildlife Conservation Society, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo, where I'm now a happy grants writer, contributing to something about which I am truly passionate.