I have come to learn much about myself over the coming years, and each year that goes by I learn to appreciate myself more and to become less of a people pleaser. I realized early on that I was different in life and this has given me many challenges in life, but such challenges have become by greatest lessons. I am living in Uganda as an expatriate and realizing how much I am like the women around me. This is my second African country to live in. Like most of the women here, I grew up in a very patriarchial family with a brute of a father who commonly voiced his opinion of me as a woman. This was my first lesson on gender inequality. But given the spirit I was born with, I learned early to defy him and most men in my life by doing whatever I wanted to do regardless of their support. Both my parents were hardly literate, but that never stopped me for getting my Ph.D. I learned to love school, because it brought the only since of peace and sanity into my life. I watched my mother being beaten on a daily basis and made a vow that no man would ever hit me and get away with it and that I would always support myself so that I don't have to stay in abuse relationships. I finally feel, comfortable in my own skin and look forward to outgrowing it through the contacts I develop with this group. I understand that truly, I am every woman. Most of my research is for and about women and now I am working for a Pan African organization to help re-establish African women in the history of Africa. Thank you for the opportunity to join, I look forward to getting to know more and grown more.