"What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?" - George Eliot My name is Cyrus Paris. I am a 32 year old Autistic transgender student. As a teen, this confluence of my identities meant that I left school early due to bullying and lack of support. I have returned to school in order to pursue a better career in the industry that has helped me survive since then. After leaving high school, I traveled the country by hitchhiking, riding freight trains, and taking buses. After that, I took on the world, traveling solo through Europe and Asia on cheap flights, ferries, and sometimes by foot. Traveling and having new experiences is something enjoy. Despite having been poor all my life, I've been able to turn the obligation of moving on into an opportunity to travel to new locations, seeing every state and more than a dozen countries. Everywhere I've been has been has taught me something. I am also passionate about advocacy, activism, and fighting for a more just and equal world for all. Since I was a young teen, I have been involved in activism. I often work with organizations specifically dedicated to anti-racism, feminism, LGBTQIA+ issues, and worker's rights. My long-term goals are to open a restaurant as either a chef-owner or member of a worker's cooperative. I would like to train other chefs, specifically young disabled queer and trans POC, with the knowledge I am privileged to have learned in school and on the job. In my free time, I enjoy cooking and baking, volunteering, making mosaics, reading, and studying topics that interest me.