I’ve spent much of my life wondering if I was doing something wrong — or just doing something differently.
In college, I couldn’t pick a single path. Nutrition fascinated me. Psychology pulled at my curiosity. Business felt like the practical glue. So I combined all three into one interdisciplinary degree, transferring schools and making a formal case for why this patchwork approach mattered.
At the time, it felt messy.Now, it feels inevitable.
In grad school, I pursued my MPH while working as a graduate assistant in a campus rec center. Instead of a traditional thesis or public health internship, I designed my own practicum — a worksite wellness program built from interviews, real-world application, and experimentation. I presented at a conference while others wrote research papers.
That unpaid, unconventional project ended up opening the door to my first full-time role. They asked about it more than anything else on my resume.
Since then, I’ve started and hosted a podcast, managed a contributor-based platform, sold e-books, led women’s running retreats, and built things from scratch with more curiosity than certainty.
None of it was linear.All of it was formative.
Those experiences taught me how to read a P&L, understand growth marketing, navigate SEO and e-commerce platforms, and lead without a formal title. They also taught me some hard lessons — like the fact that passion alone doesn’t pay the bills, and that sustainability matters just as much as impact.
I’ve created pitch decks on napkins. Walked into rooms I didn’t feel qualified for. Applied to accelerators and spoken to VCs when the idea was still half-formed. Said yes before I knew exactly how I’d figure it out.
And while I’m still evolving — still refining how to articulate all of this — I know now that none of it was wasted.
If you’re multi-passionate, curious, or feeling like you don’t quite fit the mold, here’s what I wish someone had told me sooner:
Lean into your curiosity.Micro-experiment your way forward.Create what you wish existed — even without a playbook.
The dots don’t connect in real time.They connect in retrospect.
And one day, you’ll realize you were building something far more valuable than a tidy resume: a body of work that only you could create.