We Move Media

If you want something enough, the whole world will help you.

Dear team,

This is not going to be a long reflective post. I have many many thoughts in my head which are going to require some time to be digested, and slowly, through writing, formulate and articulate themselves. But since my April update is long overdue; first thing first: I graduated.

If there was one thing I took away from this Ac4D experience and will keep with me for the rest of my life, it will be this: Never listen to what other people tell you what you should be doing with your life.

Growing up in a rigid learning environment in Asia, I wasn’t given a lot of room to explore and nurture the different parts of me. There was also a lot of expectations of what I should be doing with my life. There was hardly any encouragement, space, nor guidance that I could be, or was allowed to be creative. This year at AC4D allowed me to dig deep and start understanding for the first time the creative side of me that I never thought about. Or have secretly thought about but never had a place in my personal and professional life for it to manifest itself. Interaction design gave me a channel to do just that.

These 8 months have been a life-changing experience for me. I was taught the tools to execute. I was surrounded by a group of people that inspire me every day. People believed in me. And all of them led by example of how we should never listen to those who try to tell us what can’t be done. I came to Austin without a design background, without a job, without a visa. I went from opening Adobe Illustrator for the first time in September, to working as a full-time interaction designer, to winning a student competition at a design conference. I obviously have a long way to go still, but I’m working on it every single day. I’m not trying to brag. I’m saying this because I genuinely want people to know that skills can be learned and things will work out as long as you’re determined and willing to do whatever it takes. It’s not just saying you want to do something – it’s actually putting in the hours and doing what you say you’re going to do. I say this all the time now, “If you want something enough, the whole world will help you.” It has happened to me over and over again. Dream really big, and work really really hard.

I’m going to Hong Kong for 2 weeks at the end of May. In need for some quality time with mom, and also to physically be at a different place in order to get some brain space back.

More thoughts coming for my May update. Promise.

Love&peaches from Austin, Ruby

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 12th, 2011 at 5:45 am and is filed under blog, ruby ku. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.