I didn't know what hospice was before my junior year of college and I had to learn quickly. My grandma was given two weeks to live, stemming from complications from COPD and emphysema. I credit this experience with the shift in my maturity, resilience, and optimism. I was only 20 when I began caregiving. While my friends were applying for study abroad, I was filling out DNR paperwork. While they were going out with friends, I was changing underpads. The illusion of being forever young was now a distant memory. I shouldered this heavy experience alone. My family had abandoned her once it became clear she would survive longer than two weeks. While caregiving, I switched my course load entirely online. I juggled learning Italian and learning the delicate language of palliative care. My grandma suffered continuous strokes and dementia symptoms. It didn't take long until I had to unenroll and focus on her, a gut feeling my grandma would worsen and pass in my spring semester. She did. I felt angry at the world. Sometimes it felt like making that kind of sacrifice was only for the movies. There was no happy ending or grand reward for doing the right thing. No one wanted to hire a college "dropout," no matter the reasoning. I had to forge my own way. To build up savings after depleting them during caregiving, I began to freelance. I wrote website copy, crafted emails, and ultimately found what is now my career: social media. It was remote, flexible, and used my creative skillset in a way that felt fulfilling. I feel a sense of pride instead of shame at my nontraditional career journey. I had to create a lot of the opportunities I took on. I slept on an air mattress for a solid two years before I could even afford my own apartment. Nothing about my path was handed to me. It's only made me a scrappier person who can find a way through any situation. I'm a great problem-solver at work. When everyone is losing their cool, I'm calm and collected. Though I still have days where I am hit with grief, despite everything, I am happy. There are people just like me out there who are doing the quiet work of caring for others. When I lose faith in the world, I try to remember how many acts of love I'm not seeing under the surface.

Our faculty at Lehigh spoil me with their amazing research. Our three faculty members James Gilchrist, Kelly Schultz, and Xuanhong Cheng will be sending their experiments up into space on the NG Cygnus mission (NG-20) in December. I intend on joining them to witness and capture video content of the launch! They received an NSF grant to study thermophoresis non-newtonian fluids for bioseparations. Basically, their "lab in a box" will be sent to space to eliminate gravity, which can interfere with studying thermophoresis on earth. The temperature gradients on earth can cause the fluid to move and recirculate. Without gravity, the team can isolate how these particles move with temperature changes, not changes in density and buoyancy. This is going to give us a better understanding of detecting viral loads, something we struggle with in the COVID-19 pandemic. We had/have SO many false positives, leading to further re-infection in the population. Cheng creates medical devices that could utilize this research to help communities who need more healthcare resources, such as in West Africa. I believe that healthcare is a basic human right that should be available to everyone. So if I can help engage the public and make them aware of this research, not only do we inspire our future students at Lehigh, but we also help them secure more opportunities to perform important work like this. While the general public's focus is on AI right now, I want to re-direct our attention to science with philanthropic purposes. Because in a time where my generation feels hopeless about our future, our engineering community at Lehigh gives me hope.

I'll admit it. At first, my foray into marketing was an accident. When I was caretaking for my grandma, I needed something to do remotely while I took online classes at my college. I took on unpaid internships, helped friends with their businesses, opened up Etsy shops to sell branding templates, etc. You name it, I probably tried it. After she passed, I had accumulated so much experience that I made a space myself in the field. I realized this was something I was good at. It made sense—English was always my strong suit. But I never could quite figure out what to do with that skill. Become an English teacher? Go into law? Write for the paper? None of it called to me. I was curious and wanted to know anything about everything. Of course, I wasn't Barbie! I couldn't be an astronaut, a ballerina, AND the first female president all at the same time. Still, I dreamed. It wasn't until I started to create a freelance social media marketing business that I realized I could actually learn something about everything. There have been so many fields I've learned about. Whether that's how fabric softener works at Snuggle, or how to plan an awesome road trip around Iceland at Bright Trip, I've lived so many different lives. Because that is the life of a marketer, right? We're storytellers. We can't do that without stepping into the shoes of what it's like to be an expert in the subject you're marketing. I think I will always want to chase adventure. Marketing has given me a way to indulge that. Not only do the fields vary, but the skillset needed for each business varies, too. In one role, I might wear many hats (a notorious phrase often used in job listings) and do the work of various roles in one. In another, I might hone in specifically on something like email marketing or digital ads. In my current role, I'm living vicariously through scientists and engineers. You can find me chasing robots down hallways. Or peering down into someone's billion dollar microscope to snap a photo. I very recently made friends with an astronaut who was roommates with Sally Ride. Sally. Ride! I've lived many lives through marketing and want to live many more. I always find my way into spaces where I can unleash my creativity. The one way to ensure that I'll be able to continue what I do is to finally secure my bachelor's.

Her song "Good Luck Babe" pretty much chronicles my high school journey into realizing I was attracted to women and non-men. I was in deep denial and felt a lot of shame for rejecting who I was. I even led on a close friend of mine when in reality I wasn't ready to live my truth yet. This song, and her music catalogue in general, feels like a method for me to forgive myself for not knowing any better. In fact, Chappell even says that the song's bridge is a love letter to herself. She tried to run away from fate, too. But as in all the Greek tragedies, what's written in the weave is destiny. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and hiding that dark part of my past, I now prefer to dance the pain away. I can de-robe and show off my scars in a safe space. She provides me, along with many others, much needed catharsis. I hope she has a long and prosperous career ahead of her. I know I'll probably continue pulling out the H-O-T-T-O-G-O dance at every wedding long after her peak. I mean, after all, who doesn't love the second coming of Kate Bush?!