My life changed overnight. I was just living my life, doing all the right things, living a good life, and my life changed overnight.

I'm Sarah Mitnick, and this is Seamwork Radio, where we tell stories about the surprising ways that sewing impacts our lives.

Everything seemed to be going so well for Nea Kelly in 2014. She had a challenging IT career that she loved, and she was really excelling in it. She'd recently moved from Austin to Plano, Texas, which is near Dallas, and she was enjoying being close to a big city again. She was living with her boyfriend, Jason, and he was loving and supportive. And even with her demanding career, this former college fitness instructor

found time to work out and maintain her health. It was then that something completely unexpected

changed her world. At just 36, Nia suffered a stroke that would damage about a third of her brain,

making basic tasks like speech and reading difficult.

The road to recovery was long, but on that journey, Nia discovered new sources of creativity and hard-won lessons about ambition and just what she's truly capable of.

Today, Nia shares her story with us.

Nia had always been ambitious.

She describes herself as inquisitive.

She loves to ask questions and figure out how things work, and she loves to solve problems.

I love to solve problems.

I remember in elementary school and middle school, I love the word problems that we had to solve.

Every one can relate there to the word problems.

And I love them. I love them. Even now, I love them.

Ania loved school.

Early on, she thought she might want to be a teacher because she admired her own teacher so much,

and she truly enjoyed learning.

But as she went through high school, her curiosity and detail orientation let her become more interested in computers and technology.

So I was an apprentice and engineering apprentice for the Department of Defense in high school. And I had a mentor.

And it was very rare to see female engineers at that time. So I was very lucky. And she was a person of

color. So I was very lucky to have her as a mentor.

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