I had always loved art and design but I never believed that I would be able to pursue this as a full-time career for the sole reason that I was not the best at drawing.

In grade school, I took a summer class on Photoshop. This made me realize that drawing was just one medium of art. Here in front me, was a whole new expanse of art in the digital space. This sparked much joy in me as I began to learn more about photo manipulation as well as creating digital art on Photoshop and Illustrator.

You know when you have group projects and someone always gets assigned to make the presentation deck? That was me! Through high school and college, I found much joy in working on the creative aspects of my academic projects.

In college, I even joined the advertising and communications department of my home org, and rose up to AVP of the department. There, I got to head the design aspects of our org’s different projects. I designed marketing collaterals, headed photoshoots, strategized for PR campaigns, and more!

However, all of this design work was just for fun as the goal then was to head to law school as soon as I graduated from college.

After my first year in law school, something felt off. I felt that what I was doing was misaligned with who I am. I wanted to make things, not memorize things. I wanted to ideate, not regurgitate. I loved logic, but I wanted to be able to use logic to come up with creative solutions to solve new problems.

Listening to my gut, I withdrew from law school and went back to design — this time, with more serious plans. I first went back to graphic design, but I realized I found it a bit too abstract for me. I wanted to design but I also wanted to work with a logical framework. I wanted creativity, but I also wanted strategy. I wanted to make things that looked good, but I also wanted them to make sense.

By some serendipitous turn of events, UX design found me in 2020 and it was a dovetail fit. It was a calling and career that felt aligned with what I valued and with who I am as a person. And almost every day since then, I wake up extremely grateful for the fact that I genuinely love what I do.