I eventually made it into the academy! Yay me! Actually I held my breath the whole time. I was always checking my mailbox to know if I had gotten the admission. My notifications kept me on the edge. And when it came? The next hurdle was resigning from my job. This gave me the jitters, I’d confess because I was practically moving from the known to the unknown. I asked myself questions like “what if you didn’t succeed?”, “what if tech is not your thing at all?”, “why don’t you wait till next year, at least you would have saved up enough money and your kids would be older?”, “ Won’t people laugh at you, if you fail at this?”. Lastly, my husband quietly asked me, “are you sure that this is what you want?”. I just knew that I had to decide fast and act immediately.

As these questions were running through my mind, I knew I had to make up my mind and put my best foot forward not minding the consequences. I started reading up about women in tech. I went to different forums and I read about the challenges women faced in the tech space. Especially women of color. Hmm, this opened another can of worms(laughs..). I found out that was a serious need for equity, inclusion and diversity for women. The UNESCO Science Report 2021 found out that women are still under-represented in the fields of computing, engineering, mathematics, and physics. Only 28% of engineering graduates are women, and only three out of 10 researchers are female. Even in tech companies, where policies are becoming more inclusive, women are still underrepresented in technical and leadership roles, according to the report.

I said to myself, girl do you think you have a chance here? Because it seemed the odds were much. Anyways, I soldered on in faith. I told myself that if I believe it, then it’s possible. I remembered all the victory stories I read, they mostly had one thing in common, strong believe! Some just had to step out believing. Some failed at it, but they didn’t give up. Some excelled at it and were not internationally acclaimed. All of these emboldened me and I tendered my resignation. This also birthed TECHMOM. I told myself that I will be an example to women who want to transition to tech and we would collectively empower other women in this field. This is not about feminism. I know there are lots of women that are onlookers that want to contribute their quota but don’t know how. I know that collectively, it will be doable! So who’s with me? Let’s go!