I was busy the past couple of evenings trying to make sense of the future of nanotechnology and didn’t have a chance to tell you about meeting one of my real-life heroes on Wednesday night …

Condoleezza Rice speaks at Baylor University

Yes, that is Dr. Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State and one of my biggest role models! And, I got to shake her hand!! 🙂

She shared candidly about her growing-up years, challenges she faced in segregated Alabama, waffling about what to study in college and her experiences in Washington, D.C. (The video can be found here.) I appreciated her insights as a professional woman who went against the grain. She pulled no punches in saying that there are times in life when you have to be twice as good just for others to see you as good enough. She balanced that with a reminder that succumbing to victimhood is a losing battle and to not lose sight of your abilities and dreams.

She faced numerous obstacles as a woman of color in a white man’s field, and although our back-stories are different in many ways, I related to much of what she shared because of my own goals that don’t seem to mesh, at first glance, with the life of a woman raising five kids. She inspires me.

P.S. The nanotechnology thing was my portion of a group paper and has little to do with my scholarly interests, on the whole. I did, however, find it pretty interesting. One term paper and one group assignment down; one more term paper to go! I am hoping to finish it by Thanksgiving.