Double exposure using my Olympus OM-1 and Portra

When I made these double exposures for my project Growth in 2013, I was in a precarious place.

I’d been in my undergraduate program for six years—working full-time as a web designer and attending school part-time to avoid taking on student debt. The schedule was slowly killing me. Twelve- to fourteen-hour days. Night classes after a full 9–5. Watching each friend group graduate while I stayed behind, choosing income over completion.

It wasn’t just exhausting, it was corrosive. I was choosing safety over what I actually wanted, and it was rotting me from the inside out.

2013 still felt like survival mode. The 2008–09 job market collapse wasn’t far in the rearview mirror, and college costs were exploding, though few people were talking about it yet. Security felt fragile.

After a difficult breakup, I made a decision that terrified me: I switched to part-time work so I could finally finish my degree. I took out loans to cover rent and living expenses. At the time, it felt like jumping off a building and hoping a parachute—some future, well-paying design job—would appear before I hit the ground.

In retrospect, a year off doesn’t sound radical. But then, it felt reckless.

It turned out to be the best decision I made that decade. I graduated. I landed a better job faster. I earned more. Most importantly, I stopped putting what I needed last.

As I look toward 2026, I feel strong parallels to that moment in 2013.

Economic signals feel unstable again. The design industry is shifting—this time not toward mobile, but into the wild west of LLMs and automation. Once again, the ground is moving beneath our feet.

The intention I’m bringing into 2026 comes directly from my biggest lesson of 2025: pausing to look at the whole picture—my life, my values, what actually matters—is just as important as “feeling secure.”

Maybe more important.

Because the last few years have made something painfully clear: stability and security are largely illusions. Many of us—including me—have been clinging to social contracts that no longer exist. Financial markets drift further from everyday reality. The promise that doing everything “right” guarantees safety keeps eroding.

I’m entering 2026 with cautious optimism.

Creativity always begins with destruction: of ego, identity, comfort, the devil you know. Change hurts because it requires letting go. But that destruction is what makes growth possible.

And there is real beauty on the other side of it.