about christine.
writer · author · ai educator · community builder
The name says it all, honestly.
Reluctant Graduate. Not because I didn't finish. Because I spent a long time doing what was expected of me, being good at it, and still feeling like none of it was quite mine. I was the overachiever who hit every target and felt vaguely hollow about it afterward.
Tech wasn't the plan. Building in public wasn't the plan. Running a podcast, writing a workbook, hosting events for the community I wanted to find? Absolutely not the plan. And yet. Here we are.
I didn't grow up with a teacher who spotted potential in me and handed me a path. I didn't have a mentor with a roadmap. I found my way into the tech world from retail and sales, later than I was supposed to, sideways, with imposter syndrome running at full volume the whole time.
But here's what I noticed when I got there: the rooms were not built for me. The tutorials assumed knowledge I didn't have. The conference lineups looked nothing like me. The culture rewarded a very specific kind of confidence, and I had a very specific kind of doubt.
I didn't leave. I got louder instead.
Before The Reluctant Graduate, I was a student, a retail worker, and a dreamer who wanted to be recognized for something. I had a passion for writing and a pull toward tech that I didn't know what to do with. Nobody handed me a direction, so I built one.
What I know is that starting The Reluctant Graduate was the first time something felt like mine. Not a role I was performing. Not a version of success someone else described. Just a place to think out loud, share what I was learning, and find out if anyone else felt the same way.
More than a few people did.
The newsletter became a workbook. The workbook led to events. The events led to conversations I'd been waiting years to have. The podcast came out of the realization that those conversations deserved an audience, not just a room.
Here's the thing about gatekeeping: it doesn't always announce itself. It's a tutorial that assumes you already know things. A hiring process that calls itself a "culture fit" conversation. A conference where every speaker looks the same. A tech community that says it's open to everyone but makes some people work twice as hard to belong.
I'm not interested in breaking into those rooms anymore. I'd rather build new ones.
The Reluctant Graduate exists for the person who almost didn't try. For women and girls who never saw themselves in tech and assumed that meant tech wasn't for them. For Black, Brown, and Indigenous builders who are doing the work anyway, without the fanfare, without the blueprint, without anyone handing them a door.
The book. The podcast. The events. The newsletter. All of it is the same thing: a door I had to build myself, left open so the next person doesn't have to.
No gatekeeping. Build with soul. That's the whole thing.
If any of this sounds like you, pull up a chair. Everything I make is designed to be as useful and un-intimidating as possible. The nerve to try is more than enough.