#MyBlackMathJourney, the abridged version. Growing up, I wanted to be programmer for video games. When we got home internet around grade 10, I installed Java and found a free Java textbook online.

The sheer fun of puzzling through the logic of a coding challenge quickly eclipsed the act of coding itself lol. So when I chose to be a math major, it was for more of that puzzle aspect and not being at the mercy of software

I didn't really know what I was signing up for. Sadly, my math curriculum in undergrad never quite had that fun puzzle element. I learnt about REUs but never got in one (US citizenship is usually a requirement too). Also no one was doing directed readings in the department...

All that to say, when it came to the month of graduation, I wasn't sure what I was going to do next. A part of me had held onto the hope that math would be fun again once I got to the research stage but I had applied to some grad schools but hadn't gotten accepted into any

In a lucky turn of events, one of my professors found out at an MAA meeting that his alma mater (UArk) still had openings. He encouraged me to apply if I was still interested in grad school. I gave it a shot and received an acceptance letter the day before graduation!

I think it was the last week's of my first semester in grad school that my excitement returned. We had just learnt what covering spaces were and, as an example, how we can just draw pictures to learn things about free groups and their subgroups.

Fast forward 6yrs, and I'm still drawing pictures to say things about free groups. There's definitely more to be said about grad school experience but I think I'll wrap it up here. I'm also having a hard time thinking of advice