to the number I’ve never been,

to the number I’ve never been,

Since I was young, I knew my life wouldn’t look conventional, almost in every way. I really don’t even know why but growing up, a life where you move neatly through the motions of school, degree, job, ring, house on the corner, wasn’t what I pictured for myself. There has always been something in me that felt like my path would just unfold differently.

When it came to a career, I didn’t know what that meant. Finishing high school, I didn’t even think I wanted to go to college. I just knew I wanted to do something cool and different. I knew I didn’t want to be another face in the crowd, another name on a list, or another number on a roster somewhere.

When I first started the job that I have today, I had no idea what was waiting for me. I was working in a small retail clothing shop a couple of days a week. It wasn’t much yet, but something about it felt different from the very beginning. I knew it was going to become something, and more than that I knew that I wanted to become something with it. I had no idea that when I was sitting in that little store each weekend, I was sitting inside walls that would quietly grow me up and become part of who I am entirely.

Over the years, those walls expanded and filled with more faces. These faces quickly became mentors, friends, and steady hands for me in seasons of my life I had no idea were coming. It’s a special thing, really. The people that you work with are the people you see almost more than anyone else. How lucky am I that those people have become family to me?

Back-room, late-night conversations after long days. The way we can look at one another and know something is wrong. Celebratory hugs over milestones we were never sure we’d reach. The calls on the drive home after hours, when life outside of work feels heavier than it should. There have been mornings where I’ve shown up just trying to keep it together, afternoons spent laughing so hard we forget what we’re stressed about, and moments of sitting on the floor surrounded by samples and spreadsheets, just dreaming about what we’ll one day become.

You never really know how much you will matter somewhere – or how much that somewhere will come to matter to you.

Most of the time, you start at the bottom. Quietly learning and proving yourself. Unsure of where it will lead or who you will become along the way. But what makes the difference, and has made all the difference for me, is that I was always treated like I mattered here.

I have a career where I get to live out my passion. And from the outside, that might not make sense. You could look at my job and think, is she really doing what she loves? Because no, I never grew up dreaming about retail, creating spreadsheets, editing videos or long phone calls. But those things were never the point.

These things are simply the vehicles. What I have always loved is human connection. Emotion. Creating experiences that make people feel something. And I get to do that here. In a place where I matter.

And that I’ve learned is what living out your passion truly looks like. It doesn’t always look the way you imagined. It hides inside ordinary and the repetitive, but when you are valued, trusted, and seen, even the mundane becomes meaningful. The ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Spend your time in places where you are more than just a number. Where the people surrounding you value you just as much, if not more, than you value them. Where the work you do is important, because others remind you that it is. Where you slowly become who you are meant to be through the experiences you are given.

Finding and living out your passion doesn’t mean work comes without stress or long days. Passion isn’t the absence of those things. It means you learn to find beauty there, too. Because those long days are often the ones that shape you most.

The golden hours aren’t only the mornings you wake up feeling proud of everything you’ve accomplished. They are also the days you didn’t think you’d get through. The growth you couldn’t see while it was happening.

The golden hours are every step along the way. Every moment you showed up for what you love, and who you love. The steps that carried you to the exact moment where you know you’re in a place where you will always be more than a number.