Core to our mission is helping our audience and community reach their full potential and the most important part of reaching your full potential is starting to find your purpose. Below, we’ve shared stories and insights from the community around how various folks found their purpose and we hope it helps you in your journey.
Jessica Cooper
I have found my purpose by following my heart and trying my best to spread the love that I have for performing live classical music to others. While I love attending traditional concerts in theater settings, I understand that this is not an activity that feels accessible to all; I am constantly looking for new ways of presenting classical music and venues that offer more intimate connections between the artists and the audience. In a world where so much tends to divide us, live music offers such solace and opportunity for connection among one another. Read more>>
Saniya Assembek
I discovered my purpose when I realized that art could transcend borders, connect people, and create tangible change in society. As a professional motion designer, my career has taken me across continents, allowing me to contribute not just locally but globally. Growing up in Kazakhstan, I cultivated a deep appreciation for the power of storytelling and the ways it can unite communities despite differences in language, culture, or geography. This foundation, combined with my international experiences, shaped my perspective as an artist and educator. Read more>>
Alex M. Calle
Purpose is such a tricky and slippery she-devil. It’s easy to get distracted. If you aren’t constantly looking to the sky and questioning your place in it, your north star can get lost amongst the other lights in the vista. So, we have to filter those lights and keep our north star in sight by identifying what triggers a purpose. Purpose is very closely related to joy. A feeling that looks like a child tasting ice cream for the first time, that sounds like the title song playing at the beginning of your favorite movie, or that feels like when your child cuddles up close next to you. It’s like that. It’s all of that, wrapped into one package. Keep on the lookout. Read more>>
Catherine Wickstrom
The first time I realized I had gifts to share with the world, I was in first grade. I became the go-to kid for art projects—making invitations, clubhouse diaries, hand turkeys, and fancy-wrapped gifts. I created things to sell, organized holiday parties, and always gravitated toward activities that felt natural and fun. My parents lovingly supported both my artistic and athletic pursuits, encouraging me to embrace life with a positive attitude. Read more>>
Celine Rille
From early childhood, kids are asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The idea that you have to decide on your career path, your one true purpose, and then spend your life trying to fulfill that goal is drilled into us from a young age. I answered that question when I was ten: “I want to make movies!” So, I took drama classes at school, made videos with my friends on the weekends, and eventually went to film school for my degree. After college, I found myself sitting in an interview at Paramount Studios in Hollywood—with nothing to say. I’d made all the right moves, done everything I was supposed to do, but the reality was, as I’d grown up, my childhood passions no longer aligned with my adult ones. Read more>>
Cyrilla Suwarsa
My journey to finding purpose came from an unexpected challenge. As a graphic designer in NYC, I was living a fast-paced, creative life when I was diagnosed with Lupus. It is an autoimmune disorder that attacks your own body and organs. The diagnosis devastated me. Since I wasn’t able to work, I returned home to Indonesia to be with my family. Read more>>
Hema Bharadwaj
I once enjoyed a strong, consistent practice in the arts, but when my children arrived, everything shifted. I retreated underground, away from the art world, and embarked on a journey of self-discovery, creating a labyrinth of tunnels focused on holistic practices, mindful parenting, community building, and education. Over time, I emerged raw, jagged, contorted, liquefied, transparent—ensconced in a primordial soup of unexpressed imagery. I knew it was time to shift gears. Read more>>
Tera Kull
I’ve always looked to make meaning out of what I pour my energy into– wanting to align who I am with what I get to do everyday. It’s been non-negotiable for me to feel like my work matters, makes a difference, and leaves a place better than I found it. I have built my career on a foundation of my passion for helping & empowering people’s potential while working for mission driven organizations. Read more>>
Fatiha Alam
I grew up as the first born daughter in a Bengali-American household. Growing up in a cultural household, there is typically a path carved out for you that you are expected to follow. I was always told that I have to go into STEM growing up because this is what would make me money and impress my family. I knew these expectations came from my parents wanting a better life for me, but I wanted so much more than just a traditional pathway since I was a kid. I wanted a lot of things that were outside of our cultural norm, which caused me and my parents to bump heads. Our relationship was very severed throughout high school. Read more>>
Elizabeth Su
Purpose, for me, is not a static thing. It seems to be constantly changing based on what’s important to me at the time. For many years, my racial identity was the most important thing to me. Reclaiming parts of myself that I had lost as a third-generation, mixed Asian girl from the Midwest. I spent most of my life rejecting my Chinese side but with the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020, I felt a deep longing to feel connected to the Chinese community. It’s like I didn’t realize what was missing until my heart felt this new kind of achiness. Read more>>
Angela Alameda
For a long time I didn’t know what my purpose was… I felt lost. I tried so many different things to fill the void. I’ve always been a creative person and always leaned into that. I’ve always tried to use my skills to help supplement my income in hopes that one day it would be profitable enough to make a difference, but it was never enough and each time I gave up. I tried several network marketing companies, I made chalkboard signs for events and businesses, I handmade things like wooden Christmas ornaments, and even went to school for makeup and was even a freelance makeup artist for a while. Read more>>
Megan Malick
My purpose found me through a lifetime of navigating loss, transformation, and resilience. I carry a legacy of grief that has shaped who I am today—starting with a house fire at 17, which abruptly changed everything I knew about home and security. In my late 20s, I experienced divorce, which felt like another kind of loss, forcing me to reimagine my future. Healing childhood trauma has been another piece of my journey, as has facing infertility and undergoing a hysterectomy in my 30s, closing a door I hadn’t expected to close. Read more>>
Mona Cho
I was 12 years old when I first witnessed online abuse: someone leaked my friend’s nude images without her consent. I helplessly watched her sink into isolation and shame as her intimate photos spread like wildfire across social media. Feeling disheartened by the lack of awareness surrounding the online abuse that victimized my friend, I discovered my purpose to raise awareness of technology-facilitated gender based violence (TFGBV). Read more>>
Daniel Ukiri
To be honest, I’m still not completely sure what my purpose is, but I’m certain it lies in the creative field. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a knack for arts and creative projects. Currently, I’m focused on building my brand, Dukiri Apparel, but I feel there’s more out there for me to explore. Read more>>
Asean Townsend
Being a point guard from a young age, I always knew that helping others reach their dreams/ “buckets” (colloquially speaking) was my purpose. I knew that it brought me immense joy to help others, and through doing that repeatedly, I realized that this is what I am here to do. Read more>>
Jimmy Salazar
My purpose has always been there I just ignored it. It’s that thing in the back of your mind your gut your intuition. The path and situations in my life had a big impact on how I got to the path of least resistance. From battling self hate and lacking confidence to dealing with alcoholism, and working on loving myself daily. Going through all that I realized I’m a silent light worker. I am here to help others, help others come alive in whatever my path puts in my way. My purpose is to help others. Read more>>
Marta Han And Zsofia Jamieson
Zsofia: My journey to finding purpose is deeply personal, and turned out to be very transformative. As someone who struggled with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) for many years, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to feel in control of your female health. After many years of trials and errors I discovered fertility-focused exercises, which helped me heal and gave me the tool to feel in control of my body, naturally. The more I learned and experienced, the more I felt a calling to share these techniques with other women. Following a long and stressful career in fashion, fertility wellness became my purpose because I knew it could empower women to reconnect with their bodies like I did, and this type of healing changes lives. Read more>>
Kimberly Rose
I feel we act out what we came here to do from a very young age. I used to want to help as many people as possible. I would try and heal people, make them feel better, heal their pain etc. I used to sing a lot by myself too which is one of my biggest passions. I feel like my whole life was little seeds being planted until I reached where I am today. Read more>>
Michael Greenwood
In a way, I was lucky to learn that I loved film at an early age, but on the other hand, I was fully surrounded by influences that discouraged me from accepting it as something to take seriously at all, let alone as an avocation or a career. I see the same thing happening to lots of people. We’re conditioned to dismiss as childish every interest that doesn’t easily translate to money, comfort or status, but I think those very things that first attracted and captivated you may be your real purpose. It took me a lot of years to finally realize that you should probably just ignore most people’s dopey opinions. If people tell you that your passions are ‘unrealistic,’ it’s more likely because they’re jealous that you have any than because they care about you. Read more>>
Chris Englert
My purpose found me in second grade. Little did I know that submitting my novel, a 5-page masterpiece about my dog, Rocky, would win the best book award. I remember thinking about how the story of finding Rocky was heartwarming–everyone would want to read it–and that I had to share the story with my classmates. The book included hand-drawn pictures. Afterall, Rocky was a stray that my parents’ friends picked up and named him after their favorite actor, Rock Hudson. At 8, I didn’t know who Rock Hudson was, but two years later, Sylvester Stallone would reframe the name, and my dog became a star in the neighborhood. Read more>>
Jennifer Silva Redmond
I found my purpose in life in a most unusual way, by taking a complete leap of faith. My new husband and I had just gotten married in San Diego and were planning to live in New York City where I’d been living and working as an actress (and waitress, of course). But out of the blue, we decided to take off a couple of months and sail his boat down to Baja California, Mexico, and then go back to New York the longest slowest way — even though I knew almost nothing about sailing. The change from busy NYC to the desolate beauty of Baja was a shock and I suddenly went from performing to audiences to having an audience of one. Read more>>
Markanthony “mac” Claiborne
I found my purpose in the midst of the most painful season of my life. I literally went from Pain to Purpose. Many times we regret those seasons of darkness and pain but honestly if we all did an audit on our life the majority of our growth came from what we learned in times of pain. Read more>>
Kristina Stangl
Finding your true purpose in life is discovered through trials and errors. It’s about taking risks, making lots of mistakes along the way and then, reflecting upon these past mistakes and most importantly, learning from them. The world is one large canvas designed for experiments and in order to know your likes and dislikes, you’ve first got to test things out for yourself. Read more>>
