Like most kids, I grew up wondering what I wanted to be when I got older.

At one point or another, I dreamed of being a 3D animator, an engineer, an illustrator, an influencer, an architect, even starting my own fashion brand. Looking back, all these dreams had one thing in common: I wanted to create things that made people feel something.

But when it came time to choose a major in college, I found myself... stuck.

I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, I just knew I wanted to build things that mattered.

That clarity didn’t come until my first year at the University of Washington, when I managed to land one of the last two spots in an Informatics class.

That class changed everything.

For the first time, I learned that design isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s everywhere. It’s in the shape of a door handle; the order of buttons in an elevator; the way subtitles appear on a screen. Suddenly, I started seeing design all around me, not just as art, but as systems created for (and sometimes against) people.

That’s when I found UX.

It was the perfect blend of creativity and logic, research, systems thinking, storytelling, and problem-solving all in one. I was hooked.

Since then, I’ve thrown myself into every design project I could find.