Journal

I’ve always been a ‘get it done’ kind of person. I’m usually juggling more than one project or opportunity at a time. I don’t like wasting time or energy doing something that isn’t productive. There was once a time when I had three part time jobs, was a full-time student, volunteered as a weekly youth … Read More

“So you’re doing it.” I knew I was. That’s the thing with Doan. He’s direct and concise. Even his physical frame embodies it with its bony angles. He cut through all my concerns to tell me what I already knew: I was joining Experience Institute. The jumping bean concerns in my head, You’re still in … Read More

We are all pretty familiar with the venture building process for most startup ecosystems; on one side of the table there’s business-people: investors, advisors, realists. On the other side, you have idea-people: entrepreneurs, founders, visionaries. In the fall, I sourced founders at a seed fund in Hong Kong. I was in the investor camp. In … Read More

I came to civilla not knowing all that much about the organization, besides hearing whispers from friends/classmates who have been there and shared back that there is magic in Detroit and that time at civilla can be life-course-altering. NBD. On my first day, I arrived slightly late and blurry eyed after a very delayed 3am … Read More

Dear Future Experiencer, Here we cross paths on this journey. You are heading into the uncharted wilderness, and I am on the path home. As a fellow experiencer, I wanted to impart a few pieces of advice on the terrain ahead. I cannot give you my map because the path I took is no longer … Read More

Two weeks ago, I was working on a project to help me reflect on my past two terms and plan for the third. I found myself struggling to find a common thread between them. I felt stuck and I couldn’t seem to make sense of it. It was hard to focus and I felt like … Read More

What’s your unique value proposition? These words were displayed brightly on a white wall. My mind was spinning. The past three days at Meetup 3 had been a deep dive into exploring what my Ei year was shaping up to be and where I might head after it was over. I didn’t have an answer … Read More

Dear Food, I can’t remember when we met, but it feels like you’ve always been a part of my life. I have very few memories of you from when I was young… I remember carrying cloves of garlic around in my pocket, microwaving eggs as an “experiment”, or getting my hair caught in the blender. … Read More

Harvey began telling me what I should be doing with my life. I had known the guy less than five minutes and now he lectured me about how my mistaken approach. My attendance at this mixer was to support a friend, but seemed like another place where I needed to justify myself. Harvey (not his … Read More

“We must therefore rediscover, after the natural world, the social world, not as an object or sum of objects, but as a permanent field or dimension of existence.” – Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception If you choose to entertain the vantage point that everything is connected, literally everything, it can lead to the idea that … Read More

March 3, 2016, I enter Pedro Gomes Design, a product design studio overlooking downtown Aveiro, Portugal. It’s a busy, sunny day. There’s an overwhelming wall of sketches in my peripheral vision, two men shouting in Portuguese over the sound of their drills, and a wad of Bostik in my hand. What’s Bostik? We’ll get back … Read More

I can hear the concern when people ask me questions about Experience Institute. I understand why people worry how my year is going to turn out. They’re concerned about me being safe and finding a place to stay. They picture my path becoming derailed or people taking advantage of me. They cannot imagine surviving a … Read More

For those who read my last post, you know I was on the hunt for an apprenticeship for Term 2. Much to my (and my mom’s and dad’s) relief, I have started with Conifer Research in Chicago as a Design Researcher! I had a running start last Wednesday, March 9th. I came into the office … Read More

This fall I worked as a physical storyteller at Civilla, an IDEO-type design firm in Detroit, MI. In my role I was a builder of sorts, taking design insights from our various projects and making them into experiential installations and objects. I traveled all over the city – from hardware stores to maker-spaces, theaters to … Read More