The people-pleasing and performing is 100% ingrained in me, partly because I was a little brown girl growing up in a very white, homogeneous community in San Diego - where, in second grade, I was called a terrorist.

Growing up, I was aware of the kids-don't-like-vegetables trope, but it didn't make much sense to me. I never had any choice; all the traditional Iranian dishes my mom cooked teemed with herbs and vegetables.

There's a certain kind of dark-crusted sourdough bread I'm incapable of resisting. A sixth sense alerts me anytime I veer within a three-block radius of a bakery offering tangy country loaves with mahogany crusts. Without fail, I'll make my way inside and buy one, even if there's already half a loaf growing stale on my countertop.

Growing up, I thought salt belonged in a shaker at the table and nowhere else.

Social media is my portal into the rest of the world - my periscope into the communities next to my community, into how the rest of the world thinks and feels.

Our rules need to keep pace with current technology so that Americans who use hearing aids can easily use phones.

Surfing the Internet every day has become a habit for many leaders and officials, including myself.

I say that our economic future is in the new technology that will lead to more fuel efficient cars and cleaner energy.