I thought long and hard whether I could avoid talking about family and personal life, and just share the excitement of being a scientist and how science continues to sustain us all. But so many people, especially younger scientists, want to know—and always ask— How did you do it? A woman from Iran, a Middle Eastern country and essentially Muslim, now considered backwards and misguided if not downright scary, traveling very young and alone to the United States, finishing college and graduate school together with having children, first-year graduate school and second-year post doc—years ago, going against a number of entrenched dogmas, and yet succeeding against many odds and obstacles, and all the while on soft money? Below is my personal narrative answering some of these questions.