This is not a story about an anxious creative freelancer who discovered she can still do art and have a 401k.

This is a good story.

This is a story about a girl who was really lost in life, like, Biology-major-in-undergrad-lost, until she finally discovered something she was good at, like, really good at, that she hyper-fixated on until people started to pay her the big bucks for it, and then she got such a big head that she took a leap and moved out of her hometown to do it even more, and then she eventually got bored and realized she should probably get off her parents’ health insurance, but how when she has no skills except being a fabulous dictator who only shoots Leica and thinks she has a good eye but can’t quite put her finger on it?

But first… rewind for a sec.

Born to Ukrainian immigrants, I’ve been told many times the story of my great grandmother, Polina, who landed in Cleveland, Ohio from Odessa, Ukraine - with nothing but a crate full of Blue Danube porcelain and a fierce heart. The specially made wooden crate holding dozens of carefully wrapped teacups and dessert plates travelled through the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia), Austria, and Italy, finally landing in America - with not a single piece so much as chipped.

She was a woman who knew one truth: loyalty to one’s family and oneself. Above all. 

Just as my family left everything they knew and started over, I have found myself in quite a few faraway places over the years…

From Cleveland to Columbus to Washington D.C. to Miami, no matter what foreign land I find myself in, I am tethered to a rich sense of peace within. For everywhere I go, I carry with me all of the pieces of myself: carefully wrapped, un-chipped. These values and beliefs I hold within guide me through every project and creative endeavor, no matter how different I may feel from my surroundings. 

So what does this girl even believe in you ask? 

I’ll keep it simple. 

I believe that, “The days are long and the years are short,” — Kim Kardashian — Matilda Madfis.

I believe that life is beautiful, and it shouldn’t be taken too seriously; infuse a little humor in everything you do. I believe in thought-provoking work that shifts culture…work that gets a fellow passerby to stop and ponder, before returning to the regular humdrum.

So for now I’ll keep trying to make work that endures. And if it gets chipped along the way, I’ll be okay with that too, as long as one person got to see the beauty.