Kassie’s is far from the unexamined life. In fact, very rarely have I encountered someone with such a clearly acknowledged and articulated fundamental principle. Through the course of our conversation, her foundational committment is expressed repeatedly in a single word: autonomy. It was this commitment to her own autonomy that led to some friction in the timing of opening her café. It was that same commitment which for many years led her to resist external cultural pressure toward the domestic life. Until, that is, she percieved such pressure to have relaxed, at which point, she decided that the life of a wife and mother was one she now wishes to pursue, along with a graduate degree in psychology.