I’m really proud of that topic title, can you tell?
More than anything else, the past four/five weeks have felt like a season of mere survival than anything else to be honest. I knew it was going to be a little bit chaotic but didn’t expect to be that overwhelmed to be fair.
BKC launch + two lightning talks
The month started in Boston. As most people would know I work at the AMAZING Berkman Klein Center doing research on the laws, regulations, and policies on intermediary liability for social media platforms across Sub-Saharan Africa. The first week of September had our community come together for the annual kick-off which was amazing! The best thing about BKC is without a doubt the people. You get to meet people whose names you’ve just seen or read and get to sit in rooms with the greatest minds in the field of tech law across the world. I got the chance to present two lightning talks, one on our findings of the paper on misinformation and the second on my research project at the Institute of Rebooting Social Media which I hope to share more on soon and very soon.
Legal hackers in Brooklyn
After a busy week in Boston, I went down to New York for the Legal Hackers Annual Summit. I’ve been a proud co-organizer of Nairobi Legal Hackers for about 7 years. We started a community of lawyers and techies in Nairobi hosting and attending events across SSA on the intersection of law and tech. The community has an annual summit and for the first time in about 10 years we had Africa in the house! Legal Hackers has been pivotal to my growth and learning as a person and as a professional. I've also made lifelong friends (hi Jameson! :)) and it makes travel to new countries/cities so much easier! Come hack with us or find a chapter close to you!
Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite
I happened to be in New York the same weekend when there was a UN meeting, NY Fashion Week, the US Open and some other big deal I can’t remember. After a long, exhausting week and travel, I coughed up about 500$ for a 4star hotel only to be bitten by bedbugs. Literally! Yuck! Now, I only book hotels on booking.com and do a thorough google search on bedbug reports. Followed up for a refund, they ignore calls, emails and social media communique. Absolutely disgusting and I keep wondering to myself if they know their hotel is infested, I suspect so, because of their reaction of tired me in PJs at 1 am. I’m still recovering. Nkt.
Welcome to Miami
Probably the highlight of my month was getting away for a girls' trip to celebrate a dear friend’s birthday in Miami Beach. Miami is so beautiful! The murals especially are an absolute sight to behold, the people warm and the vibe buzzing. We got to watch Woman King (which we all loved!) We also had a boat ride on the Miami river and got to see Miami’s billionaire houses which was pretty bomb. I think more than anything the gift of friendship and community, where you have a safe space to be all you are authentically and vulnerably is unmatched.
Leaving the District
The fact that I paid my full rent for 13 months alone and never faltered is surreal to me. I finally left the District of Columbia and survived to tell the tale. The phrase character development is an understatement. I packed up my life’s belongings and moved cross country - well, maybe just up the coast since I’m still on the East Coast, dunno. Anyway! After an amazing year or so, I (successfully) moved from DC to Boston.
It is unsettling to have to uproot your life just as the roots have started gaining hold. I had just started finding a community of people, places, and interests that I’m slowly letting go of and (relatively) fearlessly starting again. Undoing to rebuild is never easy but it does help when you have a few building blocks, which I thankfully do have here.
DC was incredibly kind to me - for the most part - and I hope that Boston will be too.
So many things but, of them all is this book the Lazy Way which was a really decent read. So many good nuggets of wisdom I can't even pick one, just read the book. :)
"Don't think about what might go wrong, think about what could be right." —Unknown
I’m taking some time off to do a ¾ year check to see where I’ve been between Jan - Sep and what I hope, pray, and envisage for the last quarter of the year. Ease remains my word for the year and I constantly need to keep reminding myself of the same.