'Happa' is the Hawaiian term for being 'half' or of mixed ethnic heritage—a term I've always associated with myself as a Hawaiian-Japanese-American (which sounds ridiculous but is pretty accurate).

I’ve lived many of the most formative portions of my life in Hawaii—where I looked like everyone and was immediately accepted—and Alabama —where I looked like no one outside my own family and wasn’t part of either side of what still feels like an entrenched racial divide (see my geographic doodle below for 'the short version').

I mention this less formal aspect of my bio to make the point that my story definitely didn't begin with money, privilege, the best schools, or networked friends. In fact, my story is messy, and has often been hard fought. But my story is also full of heroes—none more impressive than the developers around the globe I have the privilege of talking to and interacting with today.

These heroes are members of an increasingly diverse global developer community, with stories and backgrounds that are unimaginably different. Many have moved mountains and made sacrifices almost unthinkable to most of us—just to access opportunity.

But these developers are changing the world—every day. So in the face of their heroism and informed by my own background and story, I am inspired to know that greatness within our ranks will not be reserved for members of a single country, ethnicity, sex, or socio-economic bracket.

Greatness and future impact will be the purview of 'the man [and woman] in the arena'—those defined by their talent, but perhaps even more so by their unflinching diligence and their hunger to learn and imagine and create and master—by a sheer force of will that cannot be stopped. The opportunity I have as a developer evangelist to contribute to these shapers of the future—across every imaginable demographic divide—is one of my greatest privileges.