I am indebted to Liz and Nasser for shaping my career and continued support and to Mark for his assertive motivation. I am grateful to my current and former trainees for their hard work and dedication. I thank my sister Rosemary and friend Dr. Leila Rieder for feedback on this essay. I also thank current and former colleagues at Princeton, the NIH, Emory, and beyond for advice, support, and friendship. Work in the Lerit lab discussed in this essay was supported by the NIH. I dedicate this award to the memory of my parents, who were a great encouragement throughout my early career and would be so proud of this achievement.