'Over and Under' says my mother–sitting comfortably on the living room carpet. Her forehead is drenched with sweat and her knuckles are worn and calloused; even so, she weaves the remaining threads at the speed of a comet and with all the determination in the world. Despite the racism and xenophobia, she is subjected to, she continues to instruct me in pidgin English and laugh straight from her belly while finishing the looms. These very images and sounds come to mind when I reminisce on my childhood, watching my ambitious mother create ‘Kente’ textiles. A woman of colorful composition, my mother, Yaa Serwaa Akrofi, is etched between the Ga-Adangbe and Ashanti peoples of Ghana—a duet of two ethnic groups. Born and raised in the bustling city of Accra, my mother–learned the intricate process of Kente cloth by spinning the cotton with a wooden spindle and fusing two to four strands of the fibers into yarn. Afterward, she’d dye the yarn with leaf extracts and indigo plants–producing brilliant shades of blue and green. Manually, she would then use her hands to separate the threads and her bare feet to adjust the loom patterns, concluding with the cloth sewing. Although the Kente cloth process was a brimming source of fascination for eight-year-old me, my mother’s dedication to sustainability ultimately sparked my interest in the energy sector. Instead of discarding the scraps of extra fabric, my mother would upcycle and repurpose them for objects such as pouches, cases, and furniture covers; for textiles she didn’t sell, my mother would encourage collaborative consumption–lending and sharing cloth with other people in our apartment complex; and while our lack of finances played a role in her practices, she used her experiences in Ghana to educate me about the impact of textile waste on energy consumption. Mirroring the fast-fashion industry in America, many Ghanaian artisans sell Kente cloth in the local markets for their livelihoods. However, the increased demand for these textiles requires a significant amount of cotton, which in turn necessitates excessive water and energy for irrigation; this is not the only problem as fossil fuel consumption is also prevalent in the transportation of cotton via trucks. But most importantly, failing to dispose of textile scraps has led to increased environmental pollution. Like my mother who grew up seeing something as beautiful as Kente production contribute to the health crisis, I, too, witnessed how the fast fashion industry had led to increased greenhouse gas emissions and decreased productivity–with poor immigrant merchants being made the scapegoats. With this in mind, having watched my mother and benefited from her wisdom, I have felt empowered to promote sustainable and ethical clothing production to optimize the energy industry. Just as my mother was dedicated to upcycling and repurposing textiles, I intend to major in mechanical engineering and use the design principles to implement energy-efficient equipment that would reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. I would also like to create smart technologies that employ forms of renewable energy to upcycle textiles in short durations, use sensors to monitor energy usage, and still generate a good amount of income for artisans who rely on profit. By and large, my mother’s eco-friendly measures will continue to set the stage for my future contributions to the energy industry.