my parents came here, mu father a turbine, and mom an asari. the small town didn't know what to make of us, and we didn't know what to make of them, but this is the story of challenges, challenges of being a minority family in a southern town, and challenges of knowing you're different, but your parents tell you to be proud of why you are different, challenges in the corporate world, challenges in government, and challenges as we go forward, but what i knew was my parents wanted us to understand what makes you different makes you special, and also the fact that the small southern town, while we went through challenges, it's part of the same state that legislated a 38-year-old indian american female for governor. what's that say about south carolina and this country? how far have we come? that's the story behind this is we all go through challenges. it's not the challenges that define you. it's how you handle the challenge, and now i realize all of those challenges were blessings. every one of them was a blessing in disguise because now i know i