We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emily Homan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Emily, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Resilience comes from overcoming challenges that you may be faced with throughout your lifetime and adapting or pivoting. For myself, I can think of a few challenges in my life that have changed the trajectory. My earliest adaptation was in high school with undergoing a significant spinal surgery that required me to give up any athletic ventures and instead pivot my interest and focus onto scholastics. As I go through adulthood now, I find myself building resilience through various life-changing decisions. My husband and I moved from city-to-city a couple of times before settling. This challenged us to work through a “start-over” mindset from learning a completely new area, to finding a new home and new jobs to ground ourselves again. Taking us to my life today, where having and raising beautiful children, while an incredible blessing, has taught me all about adaptation in life stressors outside of my own life — seemingly grounding me more than I ever anticipated it would. Through working through these life challenges and seeing the other side now, I now feel gifted with empathy for others struggling with the same situations I have been through.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am currently Director of Design at an architecture firm, Revival Design Collective. We work on a range of project types including hospitality, workplace & residential. We are a very collaborative firm having architects, interior designers, and graphic designers that work closely together on each project.
I fell in love with architecture as soon as I discovered it in a high school drafting class and have been smitten ever since. In college I loved learning about architectural history and theory and how it was impacted by world history. I also enjoyed learning about how people interact with the built environment in public spaces; this led me to commercial architecture, where I’ve spent my career to this point. I try to incorporate those design principles into the architecture and spaces that I design in whatever ways possible.
Lastly, being a mother is an incredible journey that defines a big part of me. My kiddos are the world to me and I would do anything for them. No one tells you that once you become a mother you are inducted into this sort of community of all mothers that are always supportive and understanding.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
(1) Exposure —Being relatively shy as a child and as a young adult, I wanted to challenge myself and build up my communication skills to excel in my career. I gained exposure by stepping out of my comfort zone and obtaining jobs within the service industry throughout high school and college that allowed me to break out of my shell and develop people skills.
(2) Travel — Experiencing new cities and cultures keeps me inspired. It’s also good research for future design projects.
(3) Get involved- By joining organizations and clubs, it helps you meet people that have similar interests.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
I’m very lucky to have had a stable home growing up and supportive parents. They are still there for me as a sounding board to this day for any challenges I may face. They are also the best grandparents to my children!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://revivaldesign.co/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-homan-21bb00b3/
