What's Your Origin Story?

Everyone has an origin story. How you started your career and the roles that defined your relationship with your manager, co-workers or professional life. Like any hero's journey, the story includes lessons learned, tests passed (or failed), mentors, allies and, eventually, nemeses who test your mettle.

The Sheep Farmer & The Witch

The seeds of my story were planted at the Minnesota Lottery where I worked in retail marketing. My manager, Ruth, raised lambs and sheep on the side, which she slaughtered and sold for a small profit. Her assistant, Cid, was a practicing witch who loved the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. It was a wild way to start.

Ruth and Cid showed me an alterative path to a career. It wasn't about the 40+ hour grind. They didn't live to work. They worked to enjoy the lives they had, and they enjoyed each other's company while they did it. I was given space to test, learn and discover my interests without immense pressure.

I also found that retail marketing wasn't my jam. I wanted to write, pitch media and solve strategic puzzles. My heart was in communications and PR.

Lessons learned, check.

"Origins aren't boxes...They're beginnings..."

I also found my first ally. It was a fellow student worker in the PR department. When a full-time position opened in her department, she recognized my potential and recommended me to the head of communications.

I got the job, and the head of communications became my first mentor. She had a formative impact on my philosophy as a manager and taught me how to mine for a rich, compelling narrative in my writing -- regardless of whether it was a press release, pitch letter or human interest profile.

Allies. Mentors. Lessons. The Lottery provided my first contact with each and shaped what I looked for in my next role at the Minneapolis PR agency Tunheim . (I wouldn't encounter a nemesis until a little later, when I eventually moved to Seattle...)

Press On

Origin stories are top of mind for me because my daughter, Emma Snavely, graduated from Boston University last May. Watching her start her journey is nerve-wracking, exciting and suspenseful. It also fills me with nostalgia for the thrill and anxiety of those early days when I had no idea where I was going.

But Gen Z is different from Gen X. There are no sheep farmers, witches or floppy discs in her story. Emma's cohort is the first fully digital, totally global generation. Her first "professional" step was starting her own press-on nail business.

No office. No website. A reach well beyond the Boston hamlet where she currently lives. Customers DM her on Instagram (@emmanailcheck) to place orders for her handcrafted mini works of art. (You can read a little bit about it in this article by Emma Moneuse -- also a BU grad -- in Mission Magazine.)

Nail Check! gives Emma an outlet for her art, and the imprint it leaves will influence the journey she takes through her professional life. It’s a master class in business, ingenuity and consumer insight.

Concurrently, Emma is building a career in graphic design. A couple months after starting her nail business, she got an internship at a Boston product strategy and design firm specializing in sporting goods. In a few weeks, she'll start a new apprenticeship at a global sporting goods company.

While her experiences are completely different than mine at 23, what she'll take away is universal: Lessons learned; Allies and mentors found. And, eventually, nemeses who will test her mettle.

Origins are like hometowns: Just the beginning

You don't have to be a superhero to have an origin story. We all get one. Even Taylor Swift.

But like hometowns, they don't need to fully define you. Origins aren't boxes to constrain. They're beginnings to inspire. They're simply the first chapter on a very long journey -- and extremely thick novel -- to define who you are, understand what lights you up, and embrace who you're meant to be.

My origin story was written years ago, and I build on it every day. Emma's story is just beginning. What's yours, and how has it shaped who you and where you're going?