I was twenty-four years old when I thought my life was already planned.

I had graduated from Stanford with honors. I had accepted the job everyone wanted. My parents framed my diploma before I had even unpacked my apartment. Friends congratulated me. Professors told me I had a brilliant future.

I believed them.

Looking back now, at sixty-five, I smile at that young woman.

She thought careers were ladders.

She had no idea they were oceans.

She believed intelligence guaranteed success.

She had not yet learned that character, curiosity, resilience, and courage matter far more than talent.

Most of all, she had no idea that one ordinary Tuesday morning would quietly begin a forty-year journey that would transform not only her career...

...but the person she would become.