Last year was a monumental year for me and my company (Glass Ladder Group). I am often in disbelief and awe at the amount of change, transition and success that I have seen in this short amount of time.

A year ago, I lived in Washington, D.C. and was working for an organization as the Acting Director. My work environment was miserable. Each week I put in way more work than my fair share and each week I was told that my consistent 13 hour work days did not matter. My life's work, intercultural relations, was not important. It did not bring in enough money and it was a waste of the institutions resources. For me this was devastating.

Let’s take a moment to dispel the myth that culture begins and ends with our ethnicity, or that culture shock is only a thing that we experience when we move to a completely new country.  Truth is, moving from the 60s to 104th is as much of a life-changing cultural exchange as living abroad in Paris for a semester.

Last year I hosted almost 100 foreign Fulbright scholars for their orientation into the Fulbright program and American culture. As a part of the program we organized a community service activity. After much debate in the planning process we decided to take the scholars to a nursing home.

I have always tried to remain fair and balanced. As an interculturalist it has been my life's work to create mutual understanding and provide objective mediation across cultures. But I have to admit, I am struggling to see the other side in the case of the historical Emanuel AME Church massacre in Charleston, SC.

I have read plenty of intercultural texts about the late great Tupac Shakur. Some of these texts characterize Tupac as a "gangster rapper" discussing his death and history of, "struggle with poverty, relocation, family separation, and violence," [Digital Generations: Children, Young People, and the New Media. 2013]. Others tout his, "messages of resistance, struggle, and empowerment in the face of racism and oppression," [Globalizing Intercultural Communication: A Reader. 2015]. These pieces normally center around the influence of Tupac Shakur on the African-American culture and beyond. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an article that engages it's audience in the discussion of Tupac's actual culture.

Recently, I was introduced as Brazilian in a meeting with the upper management of an organization. Now, anyone who really knows me, knows that I am not Brazilian. While this piece of information was incorrect, I chose to save the person giving my introduction some embarrassment by not correcting them. In that instance I knew that this group of people would leave the room believing that I was Brazilian and that I would be responsible for making the choice to clarify my actual cultural heritage. But I won't lie, the thought of them believing that I was from a place that I so adore was flattering to me. I even thought, "hey, let them think what they want," for a brief moment. I mean why not? I've lived in Brazil, I've studied Portuguese, I can cook a mean Moqueca de camarão and I Samba my butt off anytime I have the chance.

As societies become more culturally diverse the notion of freedom of expression takes on a new level of complexity. For journalist whose profession depends on this freedom, understanding the world's increasing multicultural landscape is critical and can even be a life or death matter.

There comes a time in every serious professional's life when they have to go out, buy a web domain and start to build their own personal brand. At least that's how it is shaking out for me.