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I always had to have a job in the summer when I was at school. It was about teaching me, and my brother and sisters, a good work ethic and making sure we knew there were no handouts. We had to find our own way in this world.

I didn't go to university straight after school. I went at night.

I'm actually one of the few kids in my grade, especially girls, who didn't end up going to college, just because I already knew what I wanted to do. I had already been actively working in music before I graduated.

So at 16 I got a job at the local radio station. And I was working after school and weekends. I did the news; I did everything. I did - played records.

In high school, I worked eight hours a day just so I could get into the college of my dreams and say that I got in - and I never went.

I was working full-time and going to school at night and on the weekends. It was just crazy.

From fifth grade on, I worked at our public library. The pay, a pittance, was almost superfluous. All through high school, I looked forward to summer as the time when I could work at the library four or five days a week. I was never a camp counselor, a lifeguard, a scooper of ice cream.

I went to the Conservatory, studying piano and singing, up to high school - but I only did four years because I then had to start working, and the jobs were so good that I didn't stop.

I always went to school, and when I was working, I had tutoring every day. I still had a childhood.