From Beginner to Professional: Lessons Picked Up on the Long Road

Finding your purpose quickly?

Not my story. I'm all about the long road.

The realization hit me early – 5th grade: "Creative life." Art university seemed like the obvious next step. "Less studying than doctors," I figured. Easy win.

Yeah... I was spectacularly wrong. It never ends. )

What followed was 10+ years of diving headfirst into any creative field that caught my eye: Fashion, Graphic Design, Animation, Book Illustration, Visual Development, Film, Storyboarding... The list goes on. And the wild part? I genuinely loved aspects of them all. They weren't separate; knowledge from one bled into the next, making each pursuit richer.

But here's the kicker: Your gut whispers, or sometimes shouts. You hear it. Then the world, with its doubts and "authoritative" voices, drowns it out. At 17, film was my passion. Could I do it? Make a career? I had no idea. Then came one question, one dismissive answer from an industry figure... and I walked away. For five years.

Enter Vinod Krishnan. His simple question changed everything:

“Why don’t you try storyboarding?”

That was the pivot. My world shifted. I finally started trusting myself: “Listen to your intuition, girl. It knows.” Trusting that voice? Hard, every time. But somehow, it steers me right.

Now storytelling is where I've truly landed.

I accept all forms of it, and bound to none.

I want the liberty to explore, to dive into projects that leave a feeling – whether it stirs something in me, or lands deep with a reader. Like my latest achievement: the first published children's book of my own creation - " JJ's Audition Adventure" (about which I'd want to tell in the next post!).