On April 30, 2019, a shooter entered my classroom on my last day of teaching at UNC-Charlotte. I was preparing to move to Texas to begin a doctoral program in environmental anthropology at UTSA. UTSA was so kind, offering to defer my enrollment as I struggled with the aftermath of the shooting. However, I needed to get out of Charlotte and do something to focus my attention as I found my “new normal.”
Five years later to the day, I am defending my dissertation, en route to earning my doctorate.
