Graduating junior high, our teacher had keepsake dioramas made for each of us. Along with our photos were other images and words that defined us: favorite foods and hobbies, beloved pets, most eagerly anticipated holidays. The crowning touch? I had a thought bubble over my head reading "Perfect Idea."

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Even though I couldn't articulate it, I was trying to express something I'd felt for a long time, all through childhood and then young adulthood: an intense, puppy-love infatuation with concepts.

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What had started with creating my own He-Man action figures and Nintendo mythologies, had quickly escalated to short fiction and later advertising. When I discovered you could get paid writing ads, it felt like marrying my secret crush.

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Which brings us to the present. For roughly twenty years now, from Buicks to cake mixes, barley pops and healthcare search engines, national TV broadcasts to the romance copy for a tiny, private label cereal mascot, I've chased that same feeling every day. It's rarely perfect, but it's almost always worth it.

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