Gina Tognoni arrives late for our lunch interview at restaurant in her neighborhood, near the ONE LIFE TO LIVE studio (where she's portrayed Kelly Cramer since 1994), and she's feeling terribly apologetic about it. There is a very good reason for her tardiness, though. Her dachshund, Sabrina, came down with what the vet diagnosed as colitis the day before, and "Mommy" had to take care of and clean up after her dog for most of the night. Tognoni fell asleep a few hours ago and "spaced" on the scheduled meeting. Although she looks tired and a bit frazzled, the former Miss Rhode Island Teen USA's fine-boned beauty (sans makeup!) and elan shine through, and, within minutes, she gathers herself and eagerly answers questions.

Unlike many performers, Tognoni grew up with no aspirations of becoming an actor. She fell into the business, she says. After competing for the teen beauty-pageant circuit, she opted to forego Emerson College in Boston and ended to New York City instead. Then she traveled to Los Angeles, where "I attended acting classes and just focused on what I wanted to do. L.A. was hard; I grew up on the East Coast and felt like a fish out of water. It was just different, and I was a little lonely. But it was challenging. I was attending Santa Monica College at the time, majoring in liberal arts, and I was planning on going to UCLA to major in psychology and minor in education. I had a pretty full schedule and kept very busy." Then, out of nowhere, OLTL beckoned.

"The way I've always looked at it is that it's like a glorified scene-study class that you get paid to do," Tognoni says of her job. "You're constantly working with other actors and other energies, and you learn so much. It gives you an opportunity to be very brave. It's a gift to know who your character is so well, to know your stage manager and camera people so well. You have an opportunity to really dig your heels in and just fly. As a young actor I needed that."

Needless to say, her six years on the soap have provided an opportunity for some intense personal growth, as well. With a laugh, she indicates that things are becoming clearer, day by day. "I don't think one's 20s are anything but clouded," she says. "I think my faith in God helps me keep things basic. There have been times in my life when I've made things far more difficult then they needed to be. It came from a place of wanting to get something right. I have so much energy, and it's how you focus it that counts. right now I'm getting to like Gina. I'm getting to know her by spending time with her. I think it's OK to be selfish in your 20s; you need to get to really know yourself. If you don't know yourself, you're no good to anyone else you might take on board. You've got to trust yourself and trust others, as much as you can. People and circumstances will disappoint you. I'd say that was the biggest lesson of the last five years. When you sit down and think about it, no one ever promised that people and things would not disappoint you. Where I come from and what I stand by is that you put your absolute trust in God. He will never disappoint you. I try to live by that."

"But it's tough not to beat up n yourself, "she adds with a shrug. "I'm pretty hard on myself. Anyone who knows me will tell you that, [but] I think that is coming to an end. I'm aggressive. Not in a bad way, but I'm ambitious and I'm so curious about life, I think being hard on yourself is counterproductive."

Tognoni is looking forward to putting those life lessons she learned to good use when she enters her 30s. Or as she puts it, "I'm saying that I start acting in what I wrestled with and figured out in my 20s. I think we all are fascinated with the notion of: When is it all going to come together for me? When am I going to feel that it's all OK? It's a goal of a lifetime."

Although Tognoni envisions a future replete with marriage and children she agrees with the assessment of a friend who believes there should be a law against anyone getting married before the age of 30. "I just think that your 20s are a time of discovery and deciding what pieces fit where. I also think you need to marry your best friend, someone who is going to love everything you hate about yourself. Marriage is like a garden; you have to tend to it. You've got to be ready to do it."

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