Beginnings I was born into a working-class family in Targoviste, a small town in Romania situated around 50 miles from the capital, Bucharest. My childhood was a normal one, mostly happy but marked negatively by the frequent conflicts between my parents. Growing up, they didn’t have much to offer to me and my brother. They…
Did you know there are still several states in the US where employers can fire me for being gay? Legislation and protections have improved in the past several years, but there are still large gaps throughout the United States for queer and trans people. In addition, I hear horror stories of toxic workplaces that my…
When I moved from Bogota (Colombia) to Paris I did a degree in translation and found myself, years later, working for one of the most important publishers specializing in research. But my dream since I left Colombia was to study Psychology. After about two years, I quit my job and went back to college. It…
I grew up in a suburb to Stockholm, where me and my brothers would wrestle over who was allowed to use our first PC. I think it was a pre-owned old beaten Compaq Deskpro 386. We only stopped arguing once we could sit down together and play Civ; one of us at the controls, the…
The first time I ever made a WordPress site, I got 180,000 views in 2 days, 253 comments, and (give or take) 7 death threats. It was 2014 and I was working on an MBA at Florida State University during the peak of the Jameis Winston controversy, where a football quarterback was accused of rape…
As long as I can remember being normal was my only goal in life. If only I could be normal, then everything would be alright. There was not a lot wrong in my life when I was a kid, growing up in a small dutch town. I had a normal family with 2 parents (a…
I grew up in a small country town in Poland, where life was pretty simple. People would know all the neighbors, they would pay each other visits every week to talk about what’s been going on in the community and to have a beer or two. It all seemed great until the moment when I…
When you are reading this, I am very near to celebrate my 33rd Birthday. I don’t know how this number ’33’ sounds to you, but in some ways, I feel it’s a big number. I know many of you would argue that 33 is not an age to be considered old. In this article I…
આ નિબંધ ગુજરાતીમાં પણ ઉપલબ્ધ છે Why has computing always been a boys’ club? I live in a society where women are not allowed to work in an office. People in my society think that all women have to do is take care of her family and stay at home. Narrow minded society. But I…
My upbringing was not quite usual Serbian upbringing. I was almost forbidden to do things I didn’t really love. My parents insisted on trying things and finding that deep passion. But I didn’t have to search and try. I always knew what I’d be when I grow up. As long as I remember, there was…
