An inflection point, as you know, is the point of a curve at which a change in the direction of its curvature occurs. In your own life and career, I’m sure you can think of many inflection points that informed the direction you would take on a certain path. Life would almost certainly be different without those inflection points.

Our goal here is to try to replicate some of the great things that happened in our early careers with as many people as possible. So we’re thinking deeply about what worked for us … and what didn’t. These inflection points in my career gave me both the moments of great, overwhelming challenge that led me to a pit of despair followed by those times that I was given a leg up, a push start, some timely support that gave me hope to keep pushing through.

Both were needed for growth. Had I not struggled, I wouldn’t have gotten stronger, but had I not been given a boost when I was on the struggle bus, I may have not gotten out of the dip in enough time or may have lost hope.

We think these situations might help people know how to navigate their own journeys. So I’m going to start a little blog series where I talk about each of the inflection points in my career that I found to be particularly meaningful. They all involve some really helpful and high-minded people that believed in me out of the goodness of their hearts. I hope you’ll follow along and be inspired by the generosity and selflessness of fellow engineers and others.

The very beginning

I wrote a lot about my timeline in the about section, how I started in film and video casting, decided to stay home with kids, and then got into technology, but I’ll use this next couple of posts to point out the inflection points in those first 15ish years post-college. The stories are too good to pass up!

The very first inflection point was deciding to go out of town for college. Mind you, I didn’t make the best choice for college, nor was I even prepared for college. My high school was under-performing, so even though I was in honors classes, I was behind and not prepared for college level math and science classes. I chose pre-dentistry as my major, so I was swiftly kicked in the butt my very first semester with chemistry and algebra.

I made mercy Cs in both of those classes (mercy because I probably deserved to fail). Turns out that you can’t expect to make good grades just for showing up like I did in high school and that you can’t sleep from 3-7 AM and

PM every day and maximize learning potential. Oh freshman year.

The choice to go out of town for school, though, was good for me. I needed to be away and focus on what I needed and wanted for my life. I was the first in my family to graduate college, so I had no guidance really. My sister who was a grade ahead of me was at the local community college, so no one really had university advice for me. I was flying by the seat of my pants.

I changed my major to undecided the very next semester, then I decided to switch to a cheaper state school the next year (after taking a semester off to save up money for a car)—my second inflection point. I was poor and had no business going into such great debt for a religious university that didn’t even have the prestige that other expensive liberal arts schools had. Going to the state school meant that all of my tuition would be paid for with the

PELL grant, such a blessing.

Along with that choice was the first real moment of grace that I experienced from someone’s kindness. My cousin, Cameron, who is 10 years older than me, and his wife, Laura, and two small kids were living nearby at the time for a job he had. They were my only family who lived within

300 miles of me. I often hitched rides back home with them for holidays during my freshman year.

When I told them that I was transferring to the nearby state school, ten minutes from their house, they offered for me to live with them rent-free for as long as I needed in exchange for babysitting. That was huge! At first, I was reluctant. After all, Cameron was part of the successful part of the family, and I was part of the outcast family within the larger family. Would I fit in? Would they like me?

I decided to get over my insecurity and accept this very generous gift they were handing me. They saw my potential, plucked me out, and gave me a leg up. It was too perfect of an opportunity to let go. I had no plan of how I was going to live otherwise. I knew tuition was covered, but living expenses were truly an afterthought. Did I mention that I was flying by the seat of my pants? I didn’t know what I was doing!

I only ended up living with them for six months because I was eager to be on my own, but it was exactly what I needed to get my bearings straight. I look back on that six months as truly transformational. I loved living with them. I got to see what a healthy, functional family looked like, something I had never experienced from the inside. I got to see what successful careers in your early thirties with small kids looked like.

Laura was, and is, a strong and hard-working woman who confidently tells it like it is. I loved living with her – cooking, having long conversations, and sharing lots of laughs. I learned so much about confident womanhood in the short time I lived with them. And from my cousin Cameron I saw a kind and fair but firm father and loving husband. To this day, we’re closer than cousins; I consider them like siblings.

It’s hard to overstate what their contribution meant to my life. The inflection point that they pinned down created such a drastic hockey stick curve because I was at such a low point already. I had no privilege; I didn’t know what I was doing; I was lost. But by welcoming me in and sharing their lives with me, they were able to inform my goals and outlook on life in that short six months in such a powerful and meaningful way.

Aren’t they inspiring! Keep your eyes open for the little Annie’s in your life! Give them a leg up if you can. Maybe it’s not letting them live with you; but I promise there are ways that you can help, even if it’s just helping them register for their first semester of college when it all seems overwhelming, or buying them groceries when they’re down and out with no other support. It will make a difference; I can testify.