I have found stepping into greater visibility this year both challenging and, at times, scary.
The old voices in my head kept taunting me: “Who do you think you are, to be so out there?”

“Why?” you might ask. “You seem to be seeking out such visibility?”

We all have backstories, and mine is that I grew up excruciatingly shy, almost ashamed to take up space. I was the plump, spotty one in a sporty, academic family. I often felt alien in a family of high achievers—both on the sports field and in the academic world.