Since we last checked in, a lot has changed in my life, and I am sure in yours, as well. I thought I would be in Thailand, or Columbia or Europe right now, hiking mountains and wandering cities, meeting locals, but instead I am home, in the town of Vineyard Haven I grew up in, biking along the Lagoon and seeing the island in a new way. Since we last checked in, countless horrific events have transpired in our world, but there have been some silver-linings for me, and hopefully for you, too. My silver-lining happened in March. As the world was shutting down, so did my campus, and the agency where I had interned at for the prior year. As most of my NYU classmates terminated their field placements, my supervisor offered me a paid temporary remote position within another program of the same larger agency - The EMPOWER Center, a health center servicing survivors of sex trafficking. I worked at The EMPOWER Center from March until the job’s end date in late June. Throughout those first 3.5 months of quarantine, I worked out of my parent’s Vineyard Haven basement in the same room I slept in each night, calling, emailing and texting clients living in New York City. It was the hardest experience of my life, and also gave me great insight into what it truly takes to be a social worker supporting survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and/or sex trafficking. By July, I realized I needed a break from social work, and decided to take this year living at home to learn how to best take care of myself, so in the future I can better take care of others. Among this silver lining, I graduated from NYU, and plan to start my MSW at the University of Chicago in Summer 2022.