“What do you want to be when you grow up?” If you remember being asked this question growing up, chances are you always had an answer. For me, it was:
• Singer (age 5)
I remember singing my lungs out and even writing my own songs, usually about my grandparent's dog Kajtek.
• Veterinarian (age 8)
This one came from my love for animals, but I quickly realised I can't stand to see them suffer.
• Archeologist (age 9)
Movies like The Mummy (1999) and Lara Croft (2001) really made an impression on me.
As a kid, those were my answers; clearly none of them stuck around. As I was getting older, my answer to this question became progressively more vague. I felt like I was missing something, especially since I was surrounded by people who seemed to have it all figured out. Friends who always knew they wanted to become teachers or work in tech, and I could see them following through on those plans. I couldn't help feeling like I'm falling behind. Where was I heading? What am I working towards?
It wasn't until recently that I understood that not knowing where you're headed might be the greatest advantage to becoming someone truly great. Every decision I made was either based on deciding where I would feel more at home (eg. in case of deciding whether I should study maths or art in secondary school, I chose art), or based on following my curiosities (I like to deep dive into things I'm interested in, from coffee to beta testing products, to writing movie reviews etc).
I applied for the Interaction Design course at Ulster University because I was equally interested in design and technology. I didn't want to wait until I have a big plan to go out and do something. Every project I've done since then was based around something I was interested in. It meant that my curiosities were paired with my insatiable desire to create, and with everything I've done I was working towards pushing my own skillset. Pairing my interest for coffee with my interest in visual arts resulted in me creating a set of coffee-themed icons, which led me to develop skills in iconography. After that you notice how one thing leads to the next one: my coffee icons and curiosity to learn more about design paired perfectly with Chris Murphy's desire to teach design and host design talks during lockdown. His “espresso lectures” were a perfect opportunity for another coffee icon, and that led to a placement offer, to work along Chris' design course where I was reading the course content and figuring out how to break it down visually.
It wasn't until I started working at Dawson Andrews, and began to figure out who I am as a person and who I am as a designer, that the key to finding your path is to embrace the unknown, and to follow your curiosities. Focus on your strengths, use your passion to drive you forward, and take responsibility to create something, even if you're creating it for yourself. Not being on a specific path, means you have a massive advantage. You're free to work with the opportunities available to you, whatever comes your way is a growth opportunity and you get to forge your own unique path to success.
Just like Alice who followed the white rabbit and ended up in a land of wonders, I followed my curiosities and ended up forging my path to success. Follow along for the journey, as I share my thoughts, my struggles but also my motivation, my drive and my curiosities.