To the Others Like Me…

To the others like me, who don’t belong in tech. Others, who, like me, never saw a future for themselves — let alone one like this. Others who never saw themselves as seeking a career, an office job. Others like me who never thought they could change the world or build something new. Others like me who reminisce too often about childhood friends that will never have the chance to “turn things around”, who live with the weight of the privilege of walking away from a life that tried too hard to claim theirs.

Some of us are members of groups that are historically marginalized and underrepresented in tech to begin with. Some of us may fit in better. But we all carry the sense of being unable to relate to our peers. Hiding certain tattoos, not speaking about the past, we are dedicated to moving forward, to making something of ourselves. We don’t speak about survivor’s guilt, about how “turning life around” requires walking away from everything we once knew.

To the others like me, who aren’t sure if they can make it in this world of savvy children of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, these clean-cut kids who had robotics clubs and programming courses in their high schools, I am here to tell you you can.

To the others like me, who consider what their childhood friends would say if they were here to see them now, who may be seen as stuck up by their own families: you do belong, if you want to.

To the others like me, who feel like traitors: you have this chance to do good for your loved ones. Too often it won’t feel like you’re doing anybody any good but yourself, but you are providing yourself the opportunity to make real change. What you do with these new found powers is up to you and you alone. There is a way to stay true to yourself and your background and provide a better life for yourself and your children than the one you grew up with.

To the others like me who know that speaking about class and race in tech is more than diversity initiatives and claiming that everyone belongs, we can change things. Understanding what a big leap it is for anyone to walk away from their neighborhood, their friends, understanding that culturally this is not a choice some can make, we can provide the foundation for “turning things around” to be seen as acceptable for our children and their peers. We can make making things better an option, we can bring resources back to our communities, and we can demonstrate our own worth: to ourselves, our peers, our mentors and instructors.