thought I was going to stay at Netflix forever. Top of market pay. Freedom and responsibility. Unlimited PTO. What more could you ask for? So when I quit Netflix in May 2021, everyone thought I was crazy. My parents objected first. Coming from cultural revolution China where they barely had enough food to eat, they thought I was throwing away all the hard work they went through to come to America. “Just keep your head down and do the work!” they said. “Don’t be ungrateful for what you have!” they said. None of my friends could believe it either. “But the free food!” “FAANG!” “Just rest and vest bro!” The only argument I heard against quitting that made me slightly pause was from my mentor at Netflix. He said I...

   “Don’t let your disability define you.” I’ve lived almost 20 years as a disabled woman. Though I didn’t take my first steps until the age of 5, I’ve had no choice but to grow up in a hyper condensed amount of time. I’ve been forever bonded to the multitudes disabled life contains — the beautiful and the ugly. I’m not shocked by others’ bizarre behavior at this point. But I can’t wrap my head around the fact that people expect me to transcend my disability…I’m not even sure what that would look like. The closest thing I can think of would be my soul leaving my body, and that requires one of three things: drugs, dying, or being at a Taylor Swift concert every waking hour of my life. Choose your fighter! (To note:...

   In 2015, photographer Massimo Sestini documented refugees leaving their homelands for safety as they crossed the Mediterranean, hoping to seek asylum in Europe. Sestini’s photographs were well praised and won several awards, but Sestini, as well as many others, recognized that the images do not properly recognize the personhood of the migrants on board the ships. Sestini’s most famous photo, taken from above, shows hundreds of people tightly packed on a shallow hull boat; many are children and few are wearing life-jackets. The image reduces the individual into a collection, negating their personal experience. This reflection inspired Sestini to start his “Where are you?” project to identify the humans aboard the ship. On February 24, 2022, the same day Putin began...