I am a designer, and consciously celebrated it through Stanford’s PD Masters-level classes. But my inspiration and mental framework is from my childhood.
I developed three main characteristics from childhood.
- I am an only child, and as such, fostered an enormously creative imagination. Having no responsibilities towards others, I had uninterrupted time to be deliberate, meticulous, and ever-curious about the minute details of life. I have always known that I wanted to create “professional” things, and that it was as much about incorporating intricacies for authenticity and enduring quality, as it was bringing physical form to an abstract vision.
- I actively reach out to others, another result of being an only child. I loved internalizing stories: connecting, understanding why/how a person formed him/herself, and gaining additional perspectives far beyond my experiences.
- My parents, considering children being in far too much of a hurry to grow up, encouraged me to appreciate and prolong my childhood. I took that to heart a bit more than they intended, and to this day, strive to exercise a child’s mindset with a questioning curiosity, open-minded wonder, non-jaded senses, and the ability to be continuously delighted and inspired by the people and things I interact with.
I now define myself as an exploring dreamer, a historian, and an artist with an engineering framework. It was natural to explore and express myself in all of those ways. I would have felt incomplete if I did not, and have done so for the following reasons.
- My curiosity always has me reaching for the challenging and unknown rather than taking cautious steps, because I find and challenge my boundaries that much more quickly.
- My desire to achieve my personal best ensures that I develop each of my facets to its fullest, rather than becoming a jack-of-all-trades.
- I consciously strive to prevent from falling into a stereotype, instead believing that I can develop a single, meaningful perspective from multiple, disparate experiences (e.g. my career path).
I have successfully lived my core philosophies, and I would love nothing more than to be part of an environment where I can freely express them with those who are like-minded: passionate, vibrant, curious, and immersive.
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