In the summer of 2017, I relocated from my hometown of St. Louis to learn, grow, and pursue an MFA from the NYU Game Center in New York City. I’ve since spent the last two years living in Brooklyn, studying with brilliant game designers, and growing in ways I could never have imagined. I am so, so grateful for my time here, but my academic studies have come to an end, and I once again find myself at a crossroads—what’s next?

The last year and a half has been one of the most exhilarating, formative, difficult, and revealing periods of my life. Let’s recap briefly, then we’ll get to the good stuff.

Regardless of where you are in your career, you will at some point hit a wall and need to get some outside input from a peer or mentor in your field. Having been on both ends of the “I need help!” spectrum, I’ve come to discover that there are ways that you can frame your needs to make your potential advisor more receptive to you, and can even help to encourage a healthy and happy long-term mentor relationship.

TL;DR: I escaped the chains of “impostor syndrome” by making a silly little game about cats… in space.