• 1987-1990: Primarily building neural connections and crying.

  • 1991: Asked a babysitter, “when will 1991 come back?”. Was shocked to learn that years don’t return on cycles like days and months.

  • 1992-1998: Fret about the linearity of time, think about how I will die someday and so will everyone else. More crying. Also discover that I’m terrible at soccer and very good at basketball.

  • 1999: Won first place in the trebuchet category of the Rhode Island Science Olympiad after being nearly disqualified because the judges thought I was breaking the rules by using a solid ball. Cut raquetball in half to prove I am not a rule breaker.

  • 2003: Read Ralph Waldo Emerson for the first time. Struck by the line “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Discover we share a birthday. Decide this is Very Meaningful.

  • 2004: Find the King’s website, immediately know I want to be there.

  • 2005-2008: Change major from physics to philosophy to contemporary studies. Write undergrad thesis on a branch of anarchism.

  • 2009: Named female athlete of the year at King’s. It feels pretty cool.

  • 2010: Wish I studied computer science.

  • 2010-2012: Work in recruitment and admissions at King’s. Visit lots of high schools, never sure until I arrive whether I’ll be speaking to a couple kids in an office or the entire school in the auditorium. Consequently get really comfortable with public speaking.

  • 2011: While working in recruitment, get so frustrated by the structure of the office’s shared drive that I volunteer to spend two weeks of evenings implementing a redesign. When I learn about UX design years later, feel proud that I used some research and testing best practices without knowing it at the time.

  • 2012-2013: Help open a guesthouse just outside of Kathmandu. Took care of bookings, financial management, welcoming guests, and making sure we had enough water in the rooftop cistern. Watched Baraka, The Radiant Child, and RiP!. All three blew my mind.

  • 2014: Tore my ACL. It hurt a lot.

  • 2014-2016: Study urban planning, lured by courses called things like “Space, Time, Revolution”. Discover that I also need to take a planning law course. Significantly less enthusiastic about that one. Write masters thesis about municipal open data and community engagement. Get plugged into the civic tech community in Toronto.

  • 2017: Helped to launch Code for Canada, a national civic tech nonprofit. First read “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver. Blown over by the first five lines: “You do not have to be good./You do not have to walk on your knees/for a hundred miles through the desert repenting./You only have to let the soft animal of your body/love what it loves.”

  • 2018: Start taking my mental health seriously for the first time. Discover that this is a Very Good Thing To Do. Maybe become a bit insufferable talking about it.

  • 2019: Realize that you can have a big party with a band and food and drinks and dancing even if you’re not getting married. Host a big party that I say is because I’m becoming a Canadian citizen, but is really just because.

  • 2020: Ride an e-bike for the first time. Very tickled by the experience.