From Survival to Storytelling

People ask me why I fight for the underrepresented, or how I find the strength.

One of my responses is: I carry the fire others lit for me when I was invisible, and I learned to see myself in the ones the world still overlooks. This Journey Isn’t Mine Alone.

Sorting through old keynote files as I prepare for the upcoming week, I paused at a truth that still staggers me:

I’ve been given a voice on more stages in the last decade than my younger self could ever fathom.

Hundreds of rooms — some holding 50,000 souls — have trusted me with their time.

Me — once stateless, homeless, carrying nothing but questions and a fraying hope that belonging might someday feel possible.

And here’s what humbles me: Opportunities like these aren’t just earned — they’re borrowed.

Every talk, every silent nod from the crowd, every whispered How did you survive? is a reminder that my voice today is stitched together by hands that fed me when I had nothing, strangers who sheltered my dignity, and communities that refused to let me disappear.

Resilience isn’t a speech I wrote, it’s a language I learned from those who lifted me up.

To every soul who shared their light when mine flickered, every organizer who saw a…