The model for this portrait is a close friend, whom I have known since she was a law student. She is a woman of intelligence, integrity, courage, and love. As much as anyone I know, she has reconstructed her life to suit her ethics and her sources of joy.

She has explained one part of the change in the following words:

I have a tattoo on my right wrist that reads “maybe you're wrong.” As I entered adulthood, I did so brazenly: I was bold, unapologetic, and hubristic, having convinced myself that my instincts would bring me success where others found failure. Though I admire aspects of my younger self, life experience, and its trial by fire, it brought me one of my hardest-earned gifts: the humility to realize that I was not always right; that I was just as fallible a human being as everyone else. My name, Karise, means, in part, "grace" and I've chosen to use this gift of humility to actualize my name, to embrace grace – grace with myself and grace with others. Every now and again, I look to my wrist to remember just that.