My producing journey grew because I started gaining a reputation as a person who makes things happen. First theater. Then traveling theater. Then international traveling theater. A few more years and a couple more notches on my belt got me into the film game (which was always my goal). Then radio. Then podcasts and live events. 

Each project presented a unique challenge, built upon the skills from the last, and threw me an unforeseen curveball that required immediate, on-the-ground training, self-taught training. Learning (and failing) in public became the norm. You become the leader that everyone looks to, even when you’re feeling like the least experienced person in the room. But you do it because you’re the producer. You have to make it happen.

One of my favorite movies of this year's Oscar season was The Substance. Demi Moore gave the performance of a lifetime as an aging starlet who trades her lifeblood for a chance at being a younger version of herself. It's a gory depiction of the same idea I was circling around in that NYU thesis a decade ago, one that the ancient Yogis and Buddhists have been saying for thousands of years: attachment to an identity -- especially one that is based only on external validation -- is the ultimate form of suffering.

After resting and recovering, we adventured. We went to both the Sunday Night Walking Street and the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, where we sipped fresh passion fruit shakes, ate a bazillion spring rolls + street meats, and watched traditional Lanna dancers. We hiked the Monk's Trail to Wat Pha Lat, a magical Buddhist temple constructed as a meditation and resting point for monks as they climbed to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a temple that sits atop the highest mountain in the region. We had an extreme jungle adventure, piloting bamboo rafts down a river in Mae Wang National Park, seeing elephants, jumping into waterfalls and visiting the Karen Long Neck Village. We took a cooking class, making a five course Thai meal and learning about the local ingredients and cuisine. Simply put, we lived. Fully.