Meet Mekenna

We were lucky to catch up with Mekenna recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mekenna , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

For a long time, I thought purpose was something you just knew—one clear thing, one straight path. But mine never showed up like that and it caused so much frustration early on in my life. It seemed like everyone but me knew their purpose.

For me, finding my purpose has felt more like an excruciatingly slow excavation process. Something I only discovered thanks to an innumerable amount of small, seemingly insignificant actions I’ve taken over a long period of time.

This excavation process started over a decade ago, when I left my home state and moved across the country to restart college. I knew I wouldn’t become who I wanted to be if I stayed where I was. So I left. I put myself through community college, earned a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego, and eventually became the first in my family to graduate from an Ivy League university.

When I moved to California and began studying science, I thought that to be “successful,” I had to let go of the creative parts of myself. But my pull toward photography never really went away. Suppressing it felt like a slow-drip toxin quietly eating away at my soul. It was a tough period of my life.

After changing career paths while at UC San Diego, I found myself quietly reaching for my camera again. I couldn’t resist it anymore. What started as something just for me began to grow. I started photographing others, and over time, I discovered what I truly love to capture.

But the biggest shift came many years later, when I started graduate school at Brown University. I was overwhelmed and searching for a way to stay consistent with my camera in school, so I impulsively started a 365-day photo challenge. That one small decision had a domino effect on my life. It led to the creation of my website, blog, and free digital resources. But most importantly, this challenge helped me call myself a photographer!

In hindsight, it’s clear to me that photography has always been a bridge back to myself. It’s been more than just a hobby. It was my hidden purpose, quietly waiting beneath the surface while I chased more “practical” paths. It has always given me a way to process life, stay present, and find beauty in my everyday moments. And somehow, school, despite often pulling me away from creativity, has always been a catalyst for growth in my photography. Almost like life kept gently redirecting me back to what I was meant to do all along.

I’m not sure if I’ve fully found my purpose yet. But I know this: I love documenting real moments in time with my camera and inspiring others to pick up their camera too!

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’m a photographer and lifelong learner passionate about documenting real moments in time. Right now, I’m focused on living the creative journey I want to inspire in others.

At the start of 2025, I began a 52-week photo challenge to continue deepening my photography practice. I also write blogs about things I learn along the way, sharing insights and reflections with others at a sustainable pace.

I’ve intentionally taken a step back from consistent social media use because I found it was stealing my creative energy rather than fueling it. I believe that it’s okay to do things differently. It’s okay to grow slowly, to create quietly, and most importantly, to get the heck offline.

At this time, I offer a few free resources to support others who want to do the same: a free 30-day photo challenge to help people build consistency with their camera while documenting moments in their life, and a free camera buying guide for those who are ready to buy a camera to start documenting their life and travels.

I don’t currently have any paid products. Right now, my focus is simply sharing my journey with the hope that it will inspire someone else to begin or return to theirs. Eventually, I’d love to create a product or resource that deeply serves others, but I want it to come from a genuine need I see, not just a desire to have something to sell.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back, I believe the three most important qualities that shaped my journey were my ability to take inspired action, my ability to get outside of my comfort zone, and my persistence.

1. Taking inspired action

So many of the most meaningful changes in my life started with a small, intuitive step, when the path was far from clear. Whether it was moving across the country for school, picking up my camera again, or starting a 365-day photo challenge on a whim. I’ve learned that movement creates momentum. Taking inspired action helped me move forward. It allowed me to follow creative nudges, say yes to aligned opportunities, and trust that clarity would come through later.

My advice for those early in their journey is to listen for those quiet nudges—the ideas that won’t leave you alone—and honor them with movement, even if it’s small. Start before you’re ready. You’ll figure it out along the way.

2. The ability to get outside my comfort zone

So much of my growth has come from choosing the uncomfortable path, the one that stretches me, and trusting I’d grow into the version of myself who belonged there. Throughout the years, I’ve learned to put myself in situations that felt “too big” for me, from taking a shot at applying to an Ivy League school to posting my first photo online, running trail ultramarathons, completing Ironman 70.3s, moving to France, and more. Every time I leaned into discomfort, I expanded my sense of what was possible.

If you’re just beginning, I’d say to listen to your fear. Lean into it. Do the thing that scares you a little. Say yes to the opportunity that makes your stomach flip. You can grow into the identity you’re aiming for by living it before you fully believe in it.

3. Persistence

My ability to persist (to continue marching forward despite difficulties) has carried me through long stretches when things didn’t seem to be working and when life felt like it was standing still, no matter how hard I pushed. It helped me finish school, show up for my photography over and over again, and keep going when I wasn’t sure if it would all work out. Along the journey, I faced more challenges, uncertainty, and self-doubt than I could write about here. But I knew that I could only accomplish my goals if I persisted.

My advice is to be patient with yourself on your journey. If something is important to you, just keep at it even if things are tough. The time will pass anyway. As Dory famously says in Finding Nemo, “When life gets you down, you know what you’ve gotta do? Just keep swimming…”.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

Out of all the books I’ve read—and I read at least 50 a year across all genres—The War of Art by Steven Pressfield has stood out above the rest. His book gave me a word for something I’d been struggling with for years but couldn’t explain: resistance.

I thought photography wasn’t meant for me. I tried every other path, thinking if it’s this hard to do, it must not be right. But nothing else felt right. Photography did. And yet, it was the hardest thing to make myself do. I suppressed that part of me for years, and it manifested in ways I didn’t even realize—burnout, frustration, illnesses, and feeling disconnected from myself.

When I read The War of Art in 2021, several years after picking my camera back up again, I was still secretly running from pursuing photography in the quiet moments. I tried everything there was to avoid photography. When I read Pressfield’s words on resistance, I cried. And I’m not a crier. For the first time, I had a name for the invisible force I was up against.

Honestly, if I hadn’t read that book, I might have taken the struggle as a sign that I wasn’t meant to pursue photography. This book taught me that sometimes the thing we’re most called to do is also the thing we’ll resist doing the hardest.

If there’s something you deeply desire to pursue, and you find yourself running from it or doing everything but that thing, The War of Art might just change your life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mekennasmoments.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mekennasmoments

Image Credits

All photos were taken by me.