Pursuing Excellence: My Journey from Dancer to Aspiring Marketer
Before we get started, let’s get one thing straight: I am, by all means, not a blogger nor a writer. I am, however, an aspiring Marketer with big dreams who will do whatever it takes to excel in my studies, including something I never thought I would do — starting my own blog.
Now that that’s out of the way — welcome to my blog!
My name is Jana and I am in pursuit of excellence.
Allow me to introduce myself for this to make sense.
I was born in Manila, Philippines in 1996 and was raised there by two incredibly supportive parents, and have four siblings. I danced my whole life beginning at the age of 4 and what started as an innocent hobby turned into a passion that has brought me to great heights by competing on a regional, national, and international level. Alongside dancing, I also competed in other sports such as swimming and cheerleading. All of these were just extra-curricular activities because, before anything else, I was a full-time student. Balancing all these — training to win championships and studying to achieve honor roll — my pursuit of excellence started at an early age and is a mindset that I try to embody in everything that I do.
The thing is, some people are born excellent while the rest of us are just not as lucky. At some point, I stopped thinking of myself as talented when the heartbreaking realization dawned on me that many other people out there are better than me at what I do. This didn’t stop me though because I still wanted to do more and my parents did not raise a quitter! What got me through was a little secret weapon that I’ve discovered: hard work. I realized that if I can’t be the most talented person in the room, I can be the most hardworking. As Angela Duckworth said in one of my favorite books, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance:
“as much as talent counts, effort counts twice.”
This is the reason why I’m in pursuit of excellence — because I’m just an ordinary girl working hard to achieve great things.
So why am I telling you all this?
It’s because I am nervous! I’m currently taking up my Graduate Studies for Integrated Marketing at New York University — School of Professional Studies (NYU SPS). As I’ve mentioned in the beginning, writing is not my strongest suit but when maintaining a blog for 14 weeks is 30% of my final grade, the writer cap comes on, no questions asked! Being the performer I am, I’ve always enjoyed talking, telling stories, and presenting. However, when it comes to putting things in black and white, I’m out. It is, yet again, a talent I was not gifted with. The good news though is that I have my secret weapon — hard work — to help me through this requirement.
As much as I currently dread this assignment, I understand why it will be value-adding for me as a student and professional. Being in the Marketing industry requires constant content creation and writing is an essential skill that can be honed. This blog assignment reminds me of the feeling of adulting — it’s difficult but necessary so I’ll do what I have to do, as excellently as I can. Despite the nerves, I’m taking this challenge as an opportunity to grow and I’m excited to see where it takes me. I’m eager to learn along the way, and hopefully, face the incoming weekly blog assignments with less worry.
Well, what can you expect from this novice blogger?
Over the next 14 weeks or so, I will be creating content about different topics under Digital Marketing. I’ve had some experience working in this field when I worked for brands such as L’Oréal Paris and Unilever, but I’m eager to dive deeper into the field and share my learnings with you. My content will cover a variety of topics, including different brands, campaigns, trends, and more so make sure you check in every week! I hope you find my content informative and engaging, and hopefully, you’ll learn from me as much as I hope to learn from this experience. Optimistically, with hard work and as I pursue excellence in this assignment, you can expect my content and writing to only get better from here!
Come and join me in this part of my journey as I try to find my place in the world of Marketing. See you next week!
