More recently I’ve been more visually-inspired than by reading books. I took a break from reading and writing incessantly. I was on an information binge; constantly feeling like I was missing some critical information in my life that would induce me into revelation.
I used to try to contain myself in one silo to commit to a specific art form (ie. writing, designing, etc) that I envisioned specializing in. I’ve realized that that is not my story.
In my adolescence, I was playing around on the web, spicing up Xanga layout themes with CSS color themes and animated banners that read, “Juicy Apple Cheeks” and “Jumbo Bear”. I enjoyed designing spaces that aesthetically embraced a person’s style. I thought I was going to be a web designer.
As a young adult, I learned to love reading. I started hoarding ebooks from the public library on my Kindle. I was enthralled by the worlds I was taken to, whether it be a lake house from Sarah Dessen’s novels or Middle-earth in LOTR. I was inspired to write and bind my own books. I would write chapters about young love in high school that was only realized in an MMORPG (massive multi-player online role playing game). I would print the chapters out in book form and bind the pages with string. I thought I was going to be an author.
In college, I learned how to code. I learned how to think programmatically and algorithmically. I tried my hand in everything I could get my hands on to build. I built e-commerce websites on Storenvy, robot swarms for NASA, critical defense systems for Northrop, open data for the City of Los Angeles, brain imaging research at an MRI lab, and audiobook experiences with Alexa. I thought I was going to become a computer scientist and engineer.
I took a writing course on how to become a Citizen of the Internet as a writer on the internet. I wanted to learn how to write for people on the Internet and earn passive income through such efforts. I met a great many people who were successful off the Internet who wanted to leverage a credible presence on the Internet. Like them, I wanted to start my own thing and not be tied down to a 9-5 office job. I thought I was going to be an Internet writer and blogger.
I am now here: working on becoming a digital entrepreneur. I’ve realized I am an innately visual person. I am a hustler. The environment I’m most comfortable in is the Internet. My ideas come in visions, like digital dreams in the metaverse. It’s virtual, it’s creative, and it requires writing and coding.
It seems like I know where I’m headed next.
Karen's Capsule 