La First Gen Podcast

As a kid, I loved coloring, drawing, painting—anything creative. Art class was always my favorite, but it never felt long enough, and I never had enough time to finish my projects. I often stayed in during lunch and after school just to keep working on them.

At home, I spent most of my free time painting and drawing. Art supplies weren’t cheap, so I was always searching the clearance sections and adding them to my birthday and Christmas wish lists.
Yet, whenever an adult asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never said artist. Instead, I said architect—the closest thing to art that still felt like a “respectable” career in my mind. Adults seemed impressed by that answer, so I stuck with it.

At some point, I felt committed to what 10-year-old me had said and even made it my major. But in college, while struggling through freshman-year architecture courses and trying to learn AutoCAD, I started questioning if I had chosen the right path.

By sophomore year, I switched my major to Business because, honestly, I had no clue what else to do. Business felt like a safe, logical choice—because, well, business is always a smart move, right?

I probably would’ve gone pre-med instead, but I barely passed high school biology, even with an amazing teacher. It was still incredibly hard for me, so I ruled out any career in biology or chemistry without a second thought.

I always knew what I didn’t want to do, but I struggled to fully embrace my genuine interests as a career path. I was scared to fail and convinced I couldn’t afford to pursue what I loved.

I felt an immense pressure to choose a career that would justify the sacrifices made so I could be the first in my family to graduate college. In my mind, only a high-paying job could break the cycle of generational poverty.

So I never let myself say artist—but deep down, that’s what I always was. It was what I did purely for joy and self-expression. It was private and It was 100% me.