I chose this field because I have always had a fascination with ancient people and cultures. I was obsessed with Egypt in particular as a young child, I would watch countless documentaries and films on various aspects of Egyptian history. I kind of ignored that though thinking there were no possibilities or jobs in this type of field. In high school I applied to WITS to study medicine, thinking I wanted to become a paediatrician, however, I did not get into medical school but into science instead. I then pursued a Bachelor of Science in Animal Plant and Environmental Sciences where I was exposed to a research project in my third year that involved cataloguing the daily activity of a rehabilitated Spider Monkey. This completely changed my approach and passion as I was in awe of the way the monkey (affectionately named Sarah) navigated effortlessly through the trees. I think that was a turning point for me and I became obsessed with primates and locomotion. It was also in this year that I had a course on evolution and met my future supervisor Dr Job Kibii. I then decided to pursue my love of all things ancient in my Honours and Masters in Palaeoanthropology. South Africa has such an incredible fossil record but I had not known much about it because we were not really exposed to it at a schooling level and many sites are inaccessible financially to a large part of our population. Once I found out about the incredible fossil record we had in our backyard, I made it my mission to ensure that other young people, especially women of colour knew about this field and their potential careers. We do not have many women of colour (or people of colour in general) in our field for many reasons including our nation's history of Apartheid whereby people were systematically excluded from a vast array of opportunities. We are currently still seeing our “firsts” but there are many women who I look up to in my field such as Dr Mirriam Tawane, Dr Nonhlanhla Vilakazi and Dr Dipuo Kgotleng.