This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nick Lyktey, 34, a New Yorker who grew up in Wantagh, on Long Island, but moved to Fort Wright, Kentucky, five miles outside Cincinnati. He now works as the chief of lab operations at Gravity Diagnostics and has lived in Kentucky for seven years. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I had a very set trajectory ever since the eighth grade; I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
Every move I made was based on working for the FBI. I went to Penn State specifically because they have a really elite forensic science program where they have buildings on campus dedicated for…
