Blog
160 words, once a month.
The Real Story of the Odyssey
My job hunt feels like The Odyssey. The only difference is that I actually enjoyed watching the movie, but I don't enjoy feeling like I'm stuck searching for my way home too. Every application is a new island. Some are Lotus Eaters, you apply, forget you applied, and drift for a while in blissful ignorance. Some are full on Sirens, singing "competitive salary" and "flexible remote work" at you from a listing that's actually a scam or already filled. Every "we've decided to move forward with other candidates" email hits like getting your ship smashed by Poseidon for no reason at all. But here's the thing about Odysseus, he didn't get home by being the strongest guy in the room. He got home by being stubborn, adaptable, and weirdly good at talking his way out of caves. That's the whole game right now. Keep sailing, keep talking your way past the monsters, and the castle gates will show up eventually.
Everyone's a Media Company Now (Yes, Even You)
Somewhere in the last few years, "creator" quietly stopped meaning "person who posts sometimes" and started meaning "person who runs an entire business built around what they make." And somewhere in that same stretch, we stopped calling the creative work "art" and instead started calling it content. Same meaning, different word. Making it something that sounds more like inventory than anything someone actually made. Something stacked and swiped past instead of sat with. That shift happened because anyone with a phone and a point of view can put something out now, and that's exactly why the barrier to actually being in this industry basically doesn't exist anymore. You don't need a label or a studio, you need a phone and something worth saying. That ease is deceptive though. Anyone can start a media company, but not everyone builds one worth following. So yeah, you're a media company now too. Just don't let content talk you out of still making art.
Throwing My Cap, Returning my Gown
Graduation. The sun was beaming on my family sitting around the outskirts of Sunken Garden, an oasis of perfectly manicured grass and palm trees in the center of the Loyola Marymount University Campus. For four years this was my stomping ground. The late nights into early mornings, the friends who became family, the projects that inspired passion, the weekend runs to beaches and bars and basketball courts, street tacos with all the right toppings, professors who can joke just as well as they can teach, music pouring out of every rolled down window, and movie posters covering the wallpaper of so many dorms. The version of me that walked into my freshman year dorm could never imagine the version of me that would walk out on the other side of my four year degree. If I did try to imagine, I'm sure it would look a little something like who I am now and who I still hope to become.