A Bit About Me
I live by a Japanese concept called Ikigai, which means 'reason for being.' 'Iki' in Japanese means 'life,' and 'gai' describes value or worth. You will find your life's purpose and bliss at Ikigai. After discovering Ikigai, I changed my path with confidence and took a leap that brought me to where I am today. UX Design was the first career to fit perfectly in my ikigai, since starting school my love for this field has only multiplied.
Being raised in a black-and-white world, I was always curious about the grey, if something didn't make sense to me I was immediately intrigued. In my 18th year, I had the opportunity to volunteer to teach in Nanjing China for 6 months, my life has never been the same since. A country that felt opposite to my own had a profound effect on me. All of my beliefs were challenged, and I loved every second. My curiosity drove me fearlessly in social interactions, I would stop people on the street or ask to sit with someone alone in a coffee shop, and I took every chance to learn about someone new. I developed an obsession with new places, people, and the unfamiliar. I am fascinated by any culture that feels different from my own due to its enticing qualities and challenges. With the motto of constantly questioning my beliefs, I left China forever changed in the best ways.
I have never taken a position that prevented me from changing lives for the better. At 16 I began working with a nonverbal child on the autism spectrum. As a result, years later, I moved to a company that provides solutions for children and teens facing behavioral, academic, and social challenges. Every day I woke up, I was excited about work, I was in an environment that was ever-changing and always growing. Watching children evolve their individual challenges in a matter of months was fulfilling. A year later I received a promotion from coach to program director at a new branch in Denver, CO. As a director, I managed staff working with students one on one while building rapport with parents and guardians. We may not have called it the double diamond process but that's what I was doing. At the consultation, I would assess the child in all categories, identify patterns, & correlate the data to the right and left sides of the brain. Depending on the child's dominant traits I would structure the program around the weaker side of the brain. From there, the iterations never stopped, depending on feedback from parents or data from students I would consistently evolve individual programs until graduation.
I have always noticed small similarities in people depending on the career they chose. Engineers are analytical, logical, and stellar at the details. These are traits the left side of the brain provides us with. On the other hand, you have the right side of your brain. This is where creativity, empathy, optimism, and big-picture thinking reside. This knowledge taught me there is immense value in having multiple perspectives and viewpoints. By utilizing our differences, we can reach synchronicity, just as our brains do. I am a big-picture thinker and when I need help with details I look to my logical friends for help. I find significant value in teamwork and collaborating with multiple perspectives. This is what led me to UX, this is why UX is my Ikigai.
