Research and writing once demanded long hours of manual work. Students flipped through books, copied references by hand, and spent extra time fixing formatting problems after finishing their papers.

I'm pretty bad at being an employee. I openly despise meetings, I say exactly what's on my mind, and I sincerely believe that many managers exist only to waste the time of otherwise productive people.

A single sentence from a faculty mentor cut deeper than I expected—because it wasn’t the first time my voice had been questioned. I spent decades believing I was not good enough to become a writer.