My grandfather came from Iran, became a surgeon, and retired to his mansion on a hill in California. I am not my grandfather, although I was named after him.

The “zadeh” part of my surname means “descendant of” because I am as much a product of my environment as I am the captain of my fate. Aren’t you?

In the summer of ‘96 my Panamanian mother birthed me in a bathtub and my dad caught me like a football after 5 minutes of labor.

I was homeschooled with my siblings, and our family of 6 traveled around the contiguous 48 states of America in an RV.

Eventually we settled in North Carolina, but continued to move every other year. We had horses, dogs, cats, and chickens. They pooped more than you can imagine.

When I was 13 I moved out of my parents’ home to attend a tiny liberal arts high school called Waldorf in the Bay Area of California. During each year of school, I lived with a different family.

After accidentally applying to the wrong major, I attended NYU: Tisch and spent a summer couchsurfing to save up so I could study abroad in Shanghai. Danced a lot, spent more time working than doing school, and graduated with honors.