The biggest thing in the natural world that I would never want to lose is sharks. Although I don't have any personal experience with them, I would one day like to work with sharks directly. I think they are such an amazing species. It would be tragic if an animal that lived through 5 mass extinctions may not survive due to humans and their behaviors. My personal sustainability pledge is to one day live a completely carbon-neutral life. I have already begun this journey, but I am nowhere close to where I want to be. I am vegan and try to avoid all single-use containers. These two things are nowhere near enough nor am I anywhere near perfect, but one day I hope to meet my goal. In the future, I would love to combine my creative past with my educational present. I am currently an Environmental Science major and I began my passion for the environment from multiple and varied documentaries. I think different creative platforms are the best way to get everyone interested in sustainability and to share information. 

I think that storytelling and creativity are extremely important in sharing stories, thoughts, and knowledge. It is how people get to know one another and each other's experiences. Without storytelling and creativity, humans would not expand their knowledge and the world would be much more mundane. In my collaboration with The Creative Process, I am able to fine-tune my creative skills and truly find a voice. I have had a lot of practice and created a lot of art through short film and stage productions, but I haven’t had the chance to explore the podcast platform before this. I have done a lot of audio editing and interviewing, and am excited about pulling my different skills together to produce a new form of art.

The first episodes of The Creative Process that I listened to were Jonathan Furmanski and Vlad Sokhin’s interviews. I was very intrigued by both of these men's different lives and career choices. Sokhin's interview was the one I found most interesting. I loved his world view of how individuals can do their part to slow climate change and his first-hand experience of how Western people's actions have directly impacted his life. He spoke on how the human race’s survival is on the line if we don’t act quickly. He then begins sharing multiple different stories he experienced in many countries. I especially enjoyed when he recalled having to leave the home he was staying in very early in the morning. Sokhin was invited by some drunk men to share breakfast with them. He did and got some amazing pictures and stories from that experience. I loved listening to these podcasts for that reason. You get to learn so much about other people’s stories, cultures, and beliefs. Things that I would not be able to learn without hearing individuals' stories in their own words. While this story wasn’t about climate change, it was a story that shaped him as a human. Towards the beginning of the podcast, Sokhin shared that “you can’t just be a tourist with a camera.” This line really stood out to me. It made me think about how often people think that they are learning about a country when in reality, they are just observing. They aren’t truly experiencing different communities and cultures by just watching.

See one of my multimedia performances: SHIPS.