The Hero’s Journey
We often hear a lot - that life is a journey. When we are young, we might think - “okay, whatever”. Of course, when you’re young you have not yet seen enough of the world to realize that we are all on this journey we call life. On a basic level, this means, being born, doing things for about 80-90 years, and then calling it a day by dying. Sometimes that 80-90 years is less, sometimes it’s more. But as we continue this journey we find out that it is much more than that. We traverse the world in the hopes of understanding things, finding love, and, if we are lucky enough, finding the meaning of life. Something I have learned recently is the concept of the Hero’s Journey. The hero’s journey was first recognized as a pattern in mythology by Joseph Campbell. The way I like to look at it is that it contains different stages for what a character must go through to become the most self-actualized version of themselves thus becoming the hero of their own story. This hero’s journey is popularized in many books and movies we enjoy. Think of Luke Skywalker and his journey to the Jedi Knighthood or think of Simba from the Lion King and his journey to reclaim the throne of his fallen Father. There are endless examples of this very pattern told over and over again, over the course of time. There are things that need to happen before a character even realizes they are on their journey. My favorite part in those movies is when the main character realizes something so profound that it catapults them to begin this journey…to their destiny. This is the story of how I have finally begun my own.
This idea of the Hero’s Journey reminds me of Saturn’s Return in astrology. Your Saturn’s Return is your astrological coming of age. The idea here is that when you were born, Saturn was in a particular location in the sky. In planetary science, the planet of Saturn takes 29 years to rotate around the Sun and just 365 days for the planet Earth. In my spiritual journey, I have learned that we are born into this world with a meaning, a purpose, and our destiny so to speak. In relation to Saturn’s Return, for us to reach that moment of true adulthood it takes around 29 years or so, thus coming home to our Saturn and coming full circle. I believe our Hero’s Journey begins around this time, at least in my case it does.
We often think of our 30s as reaching true adulthood. But why our 30s specifically? By this time in your life you have probably made enough decisions whether good or bad to develop a sense of who you are. What you like, what you don’t like, and how you like to spend your time, money, and energy. At this point, you might have dated a few people, had a few different jobs, and made a few friends. If you’re lucky enough you have saved some money, traveled to a few places, and maybe even experienced love. That all sounds great right? But as we learn in life, it isn’t all great. In my 30s I have realized that there is so much suffering that happens in the heat of all this self-discovery and journey. In my 34 years on this journey, I have experienced the loss of loved ones and heartbreak. I have experienced more ups and downs in my career than a game of shoots and ladders. But despite all this, I carry on.
That brings me to the beginning of my Hero’s Journey. When I first switched careers from Accounting because I got let go from my firm, I had to make a critical decision which was, that I did not want to do Accounting anymore. I could not see myself in those Accounting shoes for the next 60 years. At the time, I was 26 and was feeling a bit discouraged about what I wanted to do next. I remember very vividly being in my Mother’s kitchen crying because I had no idea what I wanted to do next. The only thing I could describe to her deep down in my heart was that all I knew is - that I wanted to help people. I had this extremely deep feeling that this is all I wanted to do - just help people somehow. At the time, I thought about Marketing because I thought, “maybe I can use marketing to help small businesses and people tell their stories.” And so from that day forward, I started on a new path to understand and learn about marketing. Little did I know what kind of insane path this would take me on.
Fast forward to the year 2023 and 8 years later, I have worked for start-ups, restaurants, and most recently big media agencies, learning everything I possibly could about marketing, social media, and advertising. I have learned about the good, the bad, and the incredibly ugly. In the Fall of 2022, the Tech industry suffered through layoffs after layoffs. From Amazon to Uber and ultimately with the client I have worked on the last 4 years, Microsoft. This has led to a surge of extremely overwhelming work and demands as every dollar in the industry is under pressure to perform. Over the last 6 months, my mental health began to suffer and in that suffering, I began to doubt everything I have known about the industry and field I have set out to learn so much about 8 years prior. This moment has become a defining moment for our industry. In the early days of Facebook, the Cambridge Analytica controversy opened up society to the truth that we are simply just cogs in the big world of social media. But never before has the industry truly proven that, than by laying off over 100,000 people in the last year. These are people with lives, families, hopes, and dreams. It is in all of this, that I have realized that my purpose to help people lies within everything I have learned about the industry so far. My mission is to help the world understand how to traverse this digital world. To teach and educate people about the evils that happen behind the scenes (aka within our phones) and maybe just one day, I will get to be someone that advocates for our digital rights in an ever-growing digital world.
It has only been one week since I ended my tenure at my last media agency. I have learned all the skills it takes to be a true secret agent. You heard of 007 right? He was a stellar secret agent. A capable man who was able to finish every mission. I’m here to follow in his footsteps, I’m 008 - nice to meet you. I’m currently on a new journey to figure out how to get to the path I was meant to be on, still grounded in that intention of needing to help people. I’m continuing on my Hero’s Journey. I don’t know who I might meet on this new path or what might happen, but I’m excited to keep turning the pages of my story.
PS. The Hero’s Journey contains many paths. I’m excited to be on a new path with my career as it relates to my Hero’s Journey. But there is also another path I’ve been on lately and that is the path of love. I’ve decided to dedicate my Substack page to my quest for love. I call it - my Lovestack.
