"Warring Ideals in One Dark Body"

For the first time I successfully negotiated a wage up from the original offer.

After 31 fascinating months in my present, uh, job, I’ve accepted a position with a leading, interdisciplinary research firm in Berkeley, the same one where I cut teeth as a Research Assistant. I am quite ready to drink from the cup of fulfillment.

I come from a tradition where the success of one in a community is considered celebratory for all, so once I sign the letter, we’re gonna party like a Black man is POTUS.

Friends, thank you for all your encouragement, your soothing, your counsel, your dogged persistence in propping me up and helping me to survive. Until I can lift my glass to you more formally…