It was spring 2020. I was a professor and had recently learned I’d successfully been awarded early tenure. At the tail end of a series of talks at other universities, a colleague had invited me to give a seminar at a stellar department that was an unusually great fit for my research - they were interested in recruiting me there. I was about to fly there a second time with my husband to more carefully consider moving my lab, husband, and then-6yo son to a place they’d never been. Two days before our trip, COVID shut down the country. I remember thinking, “am I really going to leave my perfect stable life where my family is happy…to move to a place I know so little about, to a house sight unseen, to a department I just visited for the first time ever?” The thing I remember most clearly from that time is the email I wrote to my new department chair. I said that every time I wonder if I’m crazy to take this leap, I remember how my parents moved to this country when I was 5 and my sister was 7. They left a comfortable life to a place where none of their professional credentials were recognized. My dad was the chief engineer on an oil tanker and retrained here as a software engineer, rose up in the ranks, and became senior manager in a lucrative tech company. My mom was a dentist who had to repeat 4 years of dental school entirely over in the states so she could do the work she already had infinitely more professional experience in than her classmates. Due to exchange rates and fees, any money set aside was decimated, and they started basically from scratch as they built up the skills to build a new life. All for the promise of uncapped potential for their kids. The decision I was grappling with in the aggressive safety of my life was a drop in the bucket of the leap of faith my fearless parents took for their kids. So when offered the position, I told my new department chair that by comparison, this felt easy - I accepted the offer without reservation. While I didn’t stay there long, I soon co-founded a company that employs even more people than my academic lab did, working on some of the most important problems at the leading edge of biotechnology. I feel so fortunate this country welcomes intellectuals and founders but also all those whose potential we cannot predict to create what we cannot imagine. America is the promise of what is not yet realized. Built by those who are not yet famous. The unique mix of creativity and talent and ambition and fearlessness from every corner of the world. It’s such a humbling and awe-inspiring idea we have the opportunity to fight for.