On the verge of adulthood, I moved to Manhattan. Never having visited the city and knowing no one—I didn’t even have a job—I was extremely ambitious and had an overwhelming desire to do nothing more with my life than to be of service to something greater. At the time, I had no idea what was being sketched out wondrously before me. When I arrived in New York and thrust into one of the most culturally diverse places in the entire world, with people from every region, religion and socioeconomic status, I have some understanding of how people can be a product of their environment, that cultures have certain longstanding beliefs and services to hold the people together, but that these beliefs can both be a gift to those who adhere to the community and also a detriment to those who see themselves outside of these definitions. In New York, the labels in particular that I had used to describe myself and others simply didn’t fit. For over the decade that I lived in New York, I worked in the Graphics Department of two of the top five investment banks. At Bank of America Investment Banking, I received two top awards for my work and held the title Senior Graphics Specialist. Prior to that I worked at UBS Investment Bank. At both investment banks, I proofread, edited, and created pitchbooks and am proficient in Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. I have also been trained in Illustrator, Photoshop and Core Draw to create and enhance graphics and logos. Being immersed in the New York art scene, I developed a sense of the different social structures from what I had been raised in. I experienced both child sexual abuse and later domestic violence. The latter was the springboard into the former that unintentionally, and even reluctantly, pushed me through my own barriers and careening towards a connection to greater things outside me. I used the medium of Standup Comedy and screenplays in telling these stories particularly through the eyes and experience of women. I have taken many courses in environmental sustainability and written and advocated on issues pertaining to local environmental laws, waste, and culture lost to globalization. Environmental writing seems to emerge naturally in my writing. I have a passion and fight in me on these topics. I am a single mother to a five year old daughter, and hope with the right clients, together we can continue the journey of self-exploration in relation to society and the environment.