Extract

Ok. So, I guess I should introduce myself.

Here are my logistics:

My name is Asher Levi. That’s I’m a 28-year-old professional Black woman. So, I’ll start with a quick review of the most important, current, personal, and relational facts. I come from a close, but “broken” family. My parents divorced when I was 13. I have two younger brothers that I don’t know very well (from my father’s second marriage). I was raised with my two older sisters (from both my parents). Their names are Laish [Lāï’ ish] and JOYOUS. JOYOUS, our eldest sister, is a personnel architect in the largest HR firm on the East Coast and married to her high school sweetheart. She’s kind and quiet and super smart. Laish is single, like me. She’s an engineer. She travels all over the world hooking up and tearing down complex computer systems. “Responsible, empathetic, jet setter” are her middle names. They are, as a result of circumstance and sheer loveliness, my oldest and dearest friends. I also have a handful of non-biological friends who easily adorn the title “sister.” Most of us have grown up together and shared tears, laughter, advice, dissentions, and forgiveness. They’re all the bomb, at the top of their fields, and rising. To boot, they are all indisputable fly girls with metal hearts (i.e. solid gold).

I’m an educator by inclination and a corporate trainer by vocation. Recently, I completed a fast-track to a doctorate in business...