Having worked in tech the majority of my adult life, I thought that I would surely retire in that field. It was a high-paying, fast paced world that I felt lucky to be in. Living in a tech hub like Seattle, I fit in perfectly. My friends and I regularly gathered for nerdy discussion over expensive drinks. We pranked each other with obscene photoshop skills. I paid off student loan debts and bought a house.

My world changed when Trayvon Martin was killed. Suddenly, a part of me that had been long-dormant reawakened and put me into direct conflict with the world I was living in. In my attempts to balance being a black woman and mother in this new reality, I started down a path that would pull me out of my tech field and into my current career as a writer.