There was a very large period of my life where I convinced myself that I needed to be a lawyer or doctor to make my immigrant family proud. I spent a lot of time trying to get involved in sports (that I was good at but not passionate about), joining clubs that I thought would look good on my transcripts and took electives and courses that did not interest me both in high school and the first 5 years of college. It took me 8 years in total to finally graduate with a bachelor’s degree because of this. I can’t even begin to explain how horrible and emotional those first 5 years were for me. I was met with rejection and frustration and depression at pursing things that were the least of my interests while I witnessed my friends graduate and move on to work in fields that they were actually passionate about, leaving me behind. I had no passion for any of the work I was doing and I did not see a future for myself because of it. I dropped out of multiple universities and community colleges until I finally decided that it was time that I discover who I am and chase that person I want to be. My family was already disappointed in me for dropping out so many times, that when I came to them and told them I wanted to go to art school in England, they just went along with it because they only wanted me to get an education and as long as I did that they no longer cared where or what I was studying. My family and I agree now that this was one of the best decisions we made together as I finally graduated and exhibited real potential in the arts.
The creative industry was a concept that was quite distant to me in my hometown. I was not introduced to many people that pursued art and were actually making a living from it. My perception of the creative industry was based on only the 1% of celebrities that we see in films, magazines, runways, billboards and listen to on our radio so the idea of that being my life was very farfetched. There was a misconception that those that were successful just had an it-factor and if you didn’t have “it”, then there was really no way for anyone to make a living in that field. I think about how naive I was to believe that with the perspective that I have now. The creative world isn’t a monolith. There are so many avenues of success within the industry and I am glad I finally know exactly how to do that.
My dream is to marry all of my interests in fashion, music, film, and design to pursue a career in the technical side of the creative world. Even within these sub-industries I felt myself more attracted to creatives that push boundaries by incorporating old and new technologies to retell stories from the past and that is exactly what I aim to do in my career. I want to utilize, exploit, and manipulate technology in order to actualize my visions of the past. My goal is to one day have my own creative business in which I provide a full 360 creative production service that specializes in the application of data-driven technology within artistic endeavors. Although I am struggling significantly, I know that General Assembly’s Data Science Immersive remote course is bringing me closer to realizing my dreams!