Conventional thinking suggest that life is linear and that our paths, educational, professional, and family, should be linear, too; that delay and failure is weakness and adversity should be dodged. I disagree not because I enjoy making my life difficult, but because the beauty of life comes from the story and experiences-good and bad, we gather along the way and share with others. I am one underdog whose story continues o send forth a tiny ripple of hope impacting others. After 8-years of working as an IT Security Evaluator/Specialist in the UK and Switzerland respectively, I relocated to the United States with my family. I wanted to further my legal career and realize my childhood dream. I was excited about being equipped with the knowledge of the American law and have the power to change lives and to be a guidepost to successful living. Little did I know that I will be entangled in my own web in a way that will pose daunting obstacle to my aspirations. It was as though my life suddenly took a downward turn and spiraled into a dark vortex. Looking back, I am grateful for the support and opportunity that I have received from the few diverse people that crossed my path - people that believed in me when I had lost all hope in myself and were willing to take the extra mile with me even when my path made no sense. The support, opportunity, and intervention I have received has led me to pursue an array of community service activities, including volunteering at the Salvation Army, becoming a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children (CASA), working with women with domestic violence, and mentoring returning prisoners. I also partnered with a retired Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, organizing, and coordinating “know your right & obligation” legal awareness education for refugees and new immigrants. I pioneered cross-cultural understanding events at different law schools as part of the law students’ professional development, and wrote published articles on this topic. Most of the people I have worked with, and supported over the years already had contact with the criminal justice system and some run the risk because they lack the protective factor and social support to keep them on the right path. Even in the worst situations, I saw human stories - and they all contained childhood trauma, victimization, poverty, loss, disengagement from the community, early interaction with the police, refugees & immigrants’ social issues. These are the people that are likely to enter the criminal justice system, be labelled as criminals, and rejected by the larger community – all with tremendous social costs to them, their children, their families, their peers, and the community at large. In retrospect, I can conveniently say that my challenging years in the United States gave me an opportunity for a paradigm shift and re-introduced me to myself and the world around me. It gave me a broader and better perspective of my childhood dream. It wasn’t just about bearing the majestic title of “lawyer, attorney, solicitor or barrister”, or earning a living as a specialist. It was about defending the defenseless. But more importantly, I have learned that fighting injustice goes far deeper than merely engaging the court system. It’s about using the skills, experiences, and resources I have acquired along the way to create opportunities for others and about contributing in some way to making things better. As the world continues to evolve both with its opportunities and interconnected challenges, my goal is to continue to leverage my interdisciplinary and cross-sector experiences to support and deliver value to underserved individuals and businesses, who will in turn pay-it-forward. And as Robert Kennedy rightly stated, my hope is that my actions may improve the lot of others, and strike out against injustice, thus sending forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.