Erica Kane has it easy. Of course she is a fictional soap character on All My Children, but her life of cliff hangers, and love affairs is more exciting than mine. Why it is that life and soap operas collide at times?

Me, I'm a plain Jane trying to make my mark in the world. I don't meddle in my family's lives and don't plot to break up couples. But in a small town, sometimes high drama becomes a sudsy entertainment for everyone to watch unfold.

I'm no Jennifer Aniston or Reese Witherspoon. Little do people know I'm actually a boring character. My character would likely get killed off by a microchip implanted in my brain or marry my long lost love after much endurance.

By day I answer phones, and the most exciting thing that happens to me in my job as a receptionist, is when I get a prank call. On my desk are piles of papers. No champagne chilling; just a regular cup of java. Sometimes I spice it up by adding a half cappuccino. Wow, what a rebel. There are no fancy martini glasses or suave men in silk suits hanging on my every word.

When I go home, I kick off the heels, and put on my ugly sweats-the one you wear at an all you can eat buffet. Admit it, everyone does it. My hair is almost always pulled in a messy ponytail. My bed is not ruffles or chenille. The bedspread is a tattered old comforter with a chocolate stain on it.

Where Erica Kane would have a full bar with exotic liquors, I bide my time guzzling back a coke. When I want to get down and funky I might drink a wine cooler.

I don't attend glitzy balls or fancy parties. Some Fridays I might go to a local bar and hang with friends. Most often I'm eating ice cream and watching my prized Sex and the City collection with my husband.

To listen to some folks, though, you'd think I was living in Pine Valley with my fourth millionaire husband. Obviously, they're not paying attention.

Whatever the case may be, life is not a soap opera. I spend my days trying to do the best job I can at everything I do-work, grad school, family and friendships. I have never performed brain surgery in a cave on a deserted island or rescued my father from a busty blond gold digger.

Unlike characters on a soap opera, we don't come back from the dead when our contract is renewed, or come back as a long lost identical twin with amnesia.

We have one chance to make our lives worthwhile. Let's spend it building each other up and making ourselves and others happy. Let's not move to Pine Valley just yet. Erica has plenty of future bridesmaids at her fingertips.