Growing up in Hampton, the face of science was brown like mine.

I knew a lot of black scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and female mathematicians and engineers, women of all backgrounds. So this idea that anyone could be an engineer, a mathematician, or whatever, was something that I had grown up with and thought was really normal.

Our next-door neighbour taught physics at Hampton University. Our church abounded with mathematicians. Supersonics experts held leadership positions in my mother's sorority, and electrical engineers sat on the board of my parents' college alumni associations.

My dad worked at NASA his whole career; he's a research scientist.

Painting is as close as a person can get to actually capturing the heat of the moment.

I didn't expect this - to be 19, be a rookie, playing this much and having a kid. It's a lot, but, I mean, I'm enjoying it.

There are moments as a teacher when I'm conscious that I'm trotting out the same exact phrase my professor used with me years ago. It's an eerie feeling, as if my old mentor is not just in the room, but in my shoes, using me as his mouthpiece.

For a period of 17 years - from the age of 9 until I was 25 years old - my mother never spent a day free from domestic difficulties.