Where you grew up and your background can often have surprising effects on our lives and careers. We’ve asked folks from the community to tell us about how their background has affected them.

Elsemarijn Hijweege | multidisciplinary artist

I grew up in a monastery, a residential community ‘Het Kloosterhuis’ in the Netherlands, where people from all walks of life came together under one roof. I was captivated by the diverse range of individuals I encountered. Mesmerized by the tales that echoed through the halls of the monastery, I was instilled with a deep appreciation for the complexity of the human experience. It was in this environment that I developed a fascination with people’s stories. I found myself drawn to the narratives of those around me, wanting to understand their experiences and perspectives on the world. Read more>>

Leslie Smith | Barber/Instructor/Barber College Owner

I started my barbering career 16 years ago, at Texas Barber College in Dallas, Texas. Prior to starting barber college, I was trying to find my way in life, thinking about going to college to get a degree in more traditional career choices, I found myself ungrounded and in need of something that would be stable and provide for my family as a young mother, without the demands of those traditional career choices. Prayerfully contemplating the best path, I began to realize that while I was growing up my dad, Roy Phillips, a successful barber since 1981, had provided for our family and was home in the evenings with us. Working in a secretarial position, at the time, I asked myself “Why don’t I go to barber college?” I enrolled the next week and never looked back. Read more>>

Matt Rosenblatt | Filmmaker

I grew up in Dallas area, growing up I had incredibly liberal parents as far as what I could watch and take in. My sister showed me IT when I was 5 or 6 and that had a large amount of trauma on me to say the least. From there it opened a door of directors ranging from Wes Craven, Steven Spielberg, and Stanley Kubrick. I think having that ability to take in stuff that explored more mature subject matter at such a young age opened my mind to different perspectives, taboos, and subjects that most kids wouldn’t be allowed to explore. That created a curiosity to create stories and film things on a tape camcorder I had from my father. Horror was always my first love as far as a genre went. Read more>>