My non-negotiables are purpose-aligned work and healthy collaboration. I don’t work with people who drain energy, undermine trust, act with ill intent, or create unnecessary friction. In high-pressure fields like space and technology, character, boundaries, clear communication, trust, and transparency are essential. When one person fails, the entire mission is at risk — and as the saying goes, failure is not an option. Earlier in my career, in my youth, I was too generous with chances in the name of learning and novel experiences. But those experiences taught me to be deliberate and selective about who I surround myself with.

Accountability and alignment are not optional when lives, systems, and outcomes are on the line. There were years of constant overwhelm — not only from the work itself, but from the conditions surrounding it. I come from a country with virtually no space infrastructure or institutional support. While peers received scholarships, funding, and clear pathways from their national space agencies, I was living out of a suitcase, hopping between “breadcrumbs” of opportunity, chasing training, research access, and field experience wherever I could find them. I not only studied, trained, and conducted research, I was also working constantly just to cover basic necessities.

Belonging anywhere felt impossible. I couldn’t afford polished networking or visibility, and many missions were funded directly out of my own pocket because I believed the science mattered and the work had to exist, even when no system supported it. It became a constant loop of reinvestment with no safety net. If I got sick or lost momentum, everything was affected. I was spread impossibly thin, yet completely, obsessively committed to the dream. At the same time, I found myself in rooms where I was the youngest, the only woman, or the only person from my country working on space and technology programs. Imposter syndrome was definitely there, but I didn’t silence it with affirmations; I silenced it with preparation, training, and execution. I broke problems into concrete tasks, asked precise questions, learned relentlessly, and focused on delivering results. Confidence followed competence, not the other way around.