I also had to dig a bit deep. There were several “false starts” in my memory that I thought might be one of these moments, before I remembered something even further back. But if I trace one line to the beginning it would lead inevitably to OMNI magazine. Discovering my first issue in the early 90s set off any number of forks that reverberate to this day. One was obvious: a love of science fiction and speculative writing. The others more profound: atheism. A realization of my mortality. Because Omni wasn’t just sci-fi writing, it was futurism. There were articles on cryopreservation (junk science, but more “real” and sold as achievable in those days). Articles on space and hard science, DNA, and so on. For an 8-year-old mind these topics and stories were, pardon the religious pun, a revelation. There was no putting the genie back after reading all those issues of OMNI, and present day me—writer, illustrator, cartoonist me—is very grateful for the discovery.

When I was in college, I had to choose between a game development track or a software engineering track. Down the game dev path was the promise of artistic passion and a crushing, soulless industry that would treat me like chattle. Down the other path was a slightly less crushing, soulless industry that would pay me well enough to live and probably not work me into burnout. I chose the latter, and every time I talk with friends who chose the former I feel like I made the correct choice.

One that your anecdote made me think of is one that will be much less relatable, but on July 24th, 2022, I woke up with the understanding that I was a straight man and went to bed shakily and fully awake that night after coming to the realization that neither of those things were true. The certainty was a bolt of lightning: one minute I was a man named C******, and the next I was a woman named Lorelei. I can't think of another moment that changed my life faster or more profoundly than that!