The World

From My Bedroom to the World

I never thought the world would come to me first.

I was a shy girl in a small Northern California town. No prom. No dances. I found it easier to write to pen friends than to make friends in person. I played with Barbies past 19. I learned differently. I was behind on paper, but ahead in my heart.

It was the global idea that saved me.

Traveling through the mail — letters, postcards, Teen magazine — I reached global individuals who were like myself. Kids who loved learning about others from communities they’d never visit. We traded stories instead of small talk. We traded hope instead of phone numbers. That global idea took me from my bedroom to meeting others face to face.

It took me to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Once as a teenager, working with young people, representing something bigger than myself. I’d gone from envelopes to Europe. From shy to seen.

Then again as an adult, attending school in Copenhagen while enrolled at Diablo Valley College. I sat in classrooms with students from everywhere and learned that discipline translates in any language. That 5AM still comes early in Danish. That being different isn’t being less.

That global idea kept going.

It was working for an architectural firm that pushed me to keep learning. I went to school at what I call “Barnes and Noble University” — the library, the bookstore, the coffee house corner where I’d read and study for hours. Self-education. No tuition, just hunger.

And that hunger led me to actually completing three degrees.

Not for the frame. For the freedom. For the girl my mother told, “You’re not hopeless, you’re developing,” when the system said otherwise.

Now I’m enrolling in a PhD program. Which means research study — not just putting a “Dr.” before my name. It means asking questions for the next shy kid. It means proving that a woman who was unhoused, who worked at Safeway with a Master’s degree, comfortable with herself — that woman belongs in academic rooms too.

The mail started it. Travel grew it. Education cemented it.

From my bedroom to Copenhagen. From letters to lectures.From being told I was behind to leading research.

The global idea is real. Community doesn’t require proximity. It requires curiosity.

And I’m proof: you can go anywhere from anywhere.

You just have to write the first letter.