Planning has been a great source of joy for me. It has also provided many opportunities to grow in my emotional capacity. It has pushed my mind, heart, and strength to places I did not know I could reach and has given me a purpose that is most dear.

It all started with a pivotal conversation with a college counselor who walked me through the opportunity of planning as a career. That half hour conversation gave me a clarity and zeal that would carry me throughout much of my career.

Planning.

To be honest, at that time, I really did not know what planning was or who planners were. What did they do? Really, what did they do. Do they even know what they do? (More on this on a future post). My background was architecture and design, and originally that's what I thought I would be. But learning about planning gave me a second option that I wanted to explore. I was skeptical at first. But when I began classes the following semester and began exploring this uncharted territory, I realized planners could affect the built environment on an even larger scale, a lightbulb went off. I didn’t want to design just buildings. I wanted to design systems, neighborhoods, experiences. I wanted to affect people’s lives, improve their quality of life, and shape places in ways that make people feel good about where they live and who they are.

Architecture strives to reach hearts, minds, and souls through form. Planning, I discovered, could do that and more. It could touch millions of lives by setting the foundation for more just, dynamic, and joyful communities.

And that’s why I became a planner.

I think about the people who live in neighborhoods where the streets don’t invite walking, where the smells and sounds don’t uplift, where something about the built environment quietly says, "you don’t belong." Those are the people I think about when I work, the ones who have been left out, intentionally or not. Planning has the power to bring them in and lift them up.

Planning for me has become a vehicle for connection. It's a mechanism by which we can fight for a better way of life, better ways to live, to move, to feel.

And for me, it’s also about healing. Healing those who have been marginalized, healing a hurting environment, healing the ailments of people by providing healthier environments....healing. Commencing a jopurney into a lifetime of opportunities for growth, both my growth and the growth of communities around me.

Planning has not been without its challenges, but honestly, I would not have it any other way.