I wake up to bright sunlight pouring in through the floor-to-ceiling windows across from my bed, feel the warm island breeze and smell the hint of unfamiliar spices in the air. I grab the silky, white bedsheets beneath me just to make sure it’s real. I inhale the scent of clean linen. It’s real. I am thousands of miles away from home in Thailand, free of charge, on a work trip--my fifth trip in just three months. I’ll spend five days here making travel content for my award-winning social media accounts and blog website and I’ll have the other three days free to explore the city of Pa Tong and work on my latest Afro-futurist sci-fi novel. This doesn’t feel like “work” to me. Through my travel content on social media, I teach others that Black people also deserve to travel and to explore the world. I provide tips so that Black people, Black women in particular, will feel less afraid to step out of their comfort zone and explore the world. I am fortunate enough to provide a $1,000 study abroad scholarship to HBCU students once each semester. I also share about the history and culture of the places I visit, with special emphasis on African diasporic history and cultures. This fuses my love of storytelling (history) with my love of travel. In addition, having completed my Master’s in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, I had the courage, confidence, and expertise to embark on my novel writing dreams. I completed and published The Legend of the Zodiac, a zodiac-inspired fantasy novel with Black main characters. This became a best-seller and was praised for putting centering Black, BIPOC, queer and disabled people in an epic fantasy. I allow readers of all ages see themselves in a genre that’s traditionally white and male-centered. I aim to do the same in my forthcoming science-fiction novel. That’s what my dream life looks like to me. Along with these career goals, it is important for me to give back to my community, serving those less fortunate and guiding Black youth. In my current role as an academic advisor at an HBCU, I mentor hundreds of young, African-Americans as they pursue their academic goals. This matches my previous education background as being in a role where I serve others gives me great satisfaction. In my future life, I will remain active in my service orgnization, a historically Black sorority, in order to both serve and change the travel industry and literary landscape.