@morissaschwartz: My birthday came with a message from 23-year-old me. 🎂 In a 2017 interview with Monmouth Magazine, I shared that one of my goals was to give a TED Talk. Nearly a decade later, I’m preparing to speak at TEDxBrookdaleCommunityCollege. Apparently, younger me was submitting requests well in advance. 😂 I’d forgotten that this goal was sitting there in print. Finding it again around my birthday feels especially meaningful. There are years of writing, learning, building businesses, and becoming a mother between that interview and the person preparing for this talk. This December, I’ll be sharing “The Human Algorithm: What AI Taught Me About Being Human.” I’m giving myself a minute to appreciate that an idea I once mentioned in an interview has become something I’m actually rehearsing. For anyone with a dream tucked into an old notebook: give it another page. Write down a step you could take toward it. I hope you get your own moment of looking back and saying, “I remember wishing for this.” Some birthday gifts come with a 2017 publication date. 🤍

Morissa Schwartz (Dr. Rissy)

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Monday 19 October 2026 14:48:20 GMT