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My mother and her sister ran a women’s lingerie shop in the Bronx long before Victoria’s Secret was even an idea. My mother put me in dance classes because she had to keep me occupied. I knew what I wanted early on. I remember vividly a Christmas play we did in kindergarten at PS 184 and I was Mrs. Claus, but Santa had stage fright and was crying hysterically. I said to his mother, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” and I took over his part — and mine.

Generally, I wasn’t the least engaged in school. I always needed a reading tutor. Some teachers tried, but I was a daydreamer. My 3rd-grade teacher, Mrs. Leherer, was the first teacher who really saw past the spaciness. She told my mother I was good in math. My mother was shocked. So was I because it wasn’t true. But Mrs. Leherer said it and made me believe it. Coincidentally, I got 100s in class after that.

My only shining moment in all of junior high (JHS 194) was in 7th grade. We had to do oral reports. I chose to explain football, which I knew not a thing about. I had the whole class and the teacher in hysterics.

By the time I got to Bayside HS, I started to get it together. I was put in a commercial program, which was the right fit. I took bookkeeping and typing, both of which I made A’s in.

But my all-time favorite class was an elective called TV and Radio Broadcasting. We wrote our own scripts and acted them out on this little tape recorder. The teacher, Mrs. Fogle, ran her class like a working environment and I responded to that. She was so inspiring and would tell me how good I sounded on air and how creative my scripts were. The more she praised, the harder I worked. It was that mix of fun and hard work that all kids need.

One day, Ms. Fogle took us to NBC and we ran into Johnny Carson. I went right up to him and said, “I’m going to be on your show one day.” He wasn’t particularly impressed, but Mrs. Fogle liked my confidence.

— As told to reporter Christina Cheakalos