FIRST LOVE:  So I started exploring. I came to the realization at a very young age that colors were my first love. And I was going to master them. I was without a doubt going to be the next Pablo Picasso, regardless of if I was an elementary school child who got hysterical regularly because I couldn't get my lines straight when tracing my alphabet letters. It was going to happen. Unfortunately for me, being an artist takes a special kind of patience, a quality that I was not blessed with. That paintbrush was thrown across the room in adolescent outrage faster than I care to admit, and in rebellion of my rejection from the realm of visual art I picked up a pencil. I learned that I could create sentences that had the same vibrancy as an image. My words could be bold, distressed, even picturesque if I wanted them to be, and I began to adopt a writing style that demanded my audience see rather than hear the stories I told. Thus, my love affair with words took flame.

FAILURE: Writing became a tool I used for everything-from my personal outlet, to love letters passed under desks, to hilarious social media posts and eventually to"OH GOD THAT 40 PAGE ESSAY IS DUE TOMORROW WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F..." And so when I got to college, it only seemed natural for me to choose Biology as my major.
Yes. Biology. As in the combination of Satan's favorite subjects: math and science. NO writing. Except for that lovely little space at the top right corner of exam Scantrons where my name and 20/100 test grades glared at me on a weekly basis. DIDN'T THE UNIVERSE KNOW I WAS GOING TO BE A GENETICS DOCTOR? For the life of me I could not understand how an individual could perform so poorly at something they desired so badly-and this was past my paintbrush temper tantrum days- I didn't give up as easily as I once had. Yet, a year later I found myself seated at a cold desk across from an even icier woman, who proceeded to tell me that the hours of chemistry YouTube tutorials, practice exams, extra self given homework, study groups and tutoring sessions were simply not enough. My scholarship was at risk and so was my ego. For about 30 minutes I pleaded with this woman, explaining my efforts and trying to get an idea of any options I possibly had, when she uttered the words that affirmed my suspicions that people with PhDs in math or science trade their souls in for their diplomas,

"Maybe college isn't for you."

TENACITY: First of all, who says that to a person and second, who listens? I marched to my university's heaven sent Career Service office- and two interviews and an aptitude test later I was told I would be the perfect student for this up and coming major called Public Relations. It combined writing, research, communication, and a love of people into a single profession, but more importantly, there was no math involved in the curriculum. I switched my major in that office at that very moment.

DIRECTION: It felt as if I had discovered Nutella for the first time. The students weren't the zombies I left behind in my micro labs, and the professors spoke of their adventures in Dubai with all of these fascinating details and oh my God it was amazing. The internships- oh the internships. I GOT PAID TO LIVE IN DISNEY WORLD AND RECEIVED COLLEGE CREDIT FOR IT. It truly felt like I was in on the best secret my college had to offer. I did everything I could get my hands on. I was a fashion journalist for a local magazine, filling Ad space and using my own photographs to be published along side MY words. Music festivals were next. I interned for two consecutive years at Louisiana's largest cultural/art/music event working within the realm of programming and then moving on to development. Then came Disney. I fully accredit Walt Disney World with inciting within my soul an unwavering passion for people- giving people an unforgettable experience, making them happy, and seeing their world's light up, even if just for the moment. The internship only lasted six months, but I learned something so valuable in that experience: I loved diversity. I loved team work. I loved communicating. And I loved huge events. So when I moved back from Orlando, my eyes were set upon another opportunity that could give me all of that: Hangout Music Festival.

My soul was pronounced dead  and revived at least 3 separate times during the two weeks I had the honor of creating with the Hangout team. I have never worked so hard in my entire life. Typically, I'm the person in the air conditioned car during the 102 degree days of Louisiana summer heat. And in the past I've driven by construction workers in the middle of the afternoon during these sizzling days and always thought to myself, "man, that's got to be rough."
                                              I HAD NO. FREAKING. CLUE. 

We were up and out on the beach by 8 a.m every morning working in the dead sun, heavy lifting, and trying not to get caught sticking our faces in the ice chests for a solid 12 hour work day. AND I LOVED IT. We were an intern group from all over the U.S, most of the time working with a single set of directions passed down through a grape vine of people and trying to not let tension break the unity of our team. While it was without a doubt stressful, and downright heartbreaking at points when we had to redo projects we were initially so proud of, there was not a single day that I thought about going home. While Disney increased my love for people, Hangout taught me how to feel fulfilled in my work- especially the grueling parts.

GROWTH: Thank goodness, because this newfound pride in rigorous work came in handy during my senior project. As you can tell, I like to write. I am comfortable with writing, and I feel like it is a natural asset for me to contribute in a team setting. For my senior project, our class had to group off into teams of six and compete to develop a public relations campaign for a local animal shelter. I applied to be the Copywriter- wrote this beautiful application letter and included samples of my writing and everything. So what did they do? THEY MADE ME CO-CAPTAIN of said team and put me in charge of everything I was uncomfortable with. As it turns out, I was not nearly as incompetent in a leadership role as I may have feared. Our Account Executive was brilliant, resourceful and held all of our work to exceptional standards. While this helped us to win our campaign, these traits also came off as hard, unapproachable an inflexible to our other team mates. This is where I came in. I got to be the liaison between our AE and everyone else involved to ensure that there was no miscommunication and everyone was on the same page without tension. I solved conflicts before they became detrimental issues. I used my writing skill set to alleviate some of the pressure from our Copywriter. I became more proficient with Adobe Creative Suite and designed some of our creative content to support our Creative Director. I constructed a survey and learned how to retrieve relevant data while working alongside our Research Director. I even led a meeting when our AE was on a career interview and it was actually productive. In the end, I dipped my hands into each aspect of our project and was responsible for putting our semester campaign into one nice and neat presentation. And guess what? WE KILLED IT. Our graduation was held a week later, and our campaign is currently in use at the shelter.