It is very difficult for me to define my identity within standard human categories. This difficulty with identity once ran so deep that my identity felt shattered. I could not find a fully-comfortable place for myself within any of the human categories. I felt like I belonged nowhere.

I am female, but my style in clothing is very male -functional and simple. I grew up in a racially monotone environment, so I tended to think of my ethnicity before my race. I am white, but I am a foreigner not entitled to many American privileges. I was a female married to a male, and president of a LBGT* organization at the same time. I am an engineer, but I can't deny myself artistic outlets. I am a professional, a researcher, almost-thirty, but I still love doing somersaults because they remind me of my childhood.

In my years at MIT, I have met many wonderful people. Surprisingly, most of them didn't fit any particular category either. They were a blur of human migrations, racial and religious amalgamates, with goals and needs spanning spectra of unfathomable dimensions. It is in this plethora of human experiences (and with some help) that I realized that we are but points of intersection on a variety of spectral lines that only begin to describe the human experience.

LBGT = lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgendered