There used to be something intimidating about “office work” to me. During my childhood, I was often told I wasn’t built for the workplace and would inevitably disappoint everyone. That fear grew into a looming monster eating away at my ambition. I thought I’d always have to settle for falling short of my goals in the name of mental and physical limitations.
Yet sitting here, I feel more sure of myself than I imagined. It’s like the running start to the best cannonball you did off the high dive as a kid. The fear was mounting as you ascended the ladder, but that running start made everything that followed better. The lift, the speed and the adrenaline all culminating in one massive, satisfying splash. All the fear washed away by the cool pool water as you sank, discomfort dissolving into satisfaction.
I’ve always preached and practiced “comfort with discomfort.” Allowing yourself room to let discomfort in and drive you forward. Do what seems right even if it’s not what’s obvious or straightforward. It’s easier said than done. And you don’t always get the satisfying payoff. But I never felt that it should stop me from trying. After all, I’m still at the part where I’m running into the jump. But I’m running and that’s what matters.
I have to trust the path beneath me to know where it’s going. It wants me to follow it.
When I chose to major in PR, I was following my instincts. I had been studying Business in Seattle for a year after graduating from high school, but all of a sudden, a life I had built for myself 1,306 miles away from here wasn’t right anymore. Perhaps it was a full-circle moment for the little me who wanted to be a journalist but didn’t like the journalism industry as it was. Or perhaps it was all for the little me who couldn’t understand or connect with the people in the world, and yet wanted to love them all anyway. I was staring down an unlit path. For the first time in my life, I couldn’t imagine my future. For a moment I was afraid I didn’t have one.
Although I had accepted my life in Seattle, I felt like I wasn’t set to do much. I took that first step down that blind path and enrolled at MSU Denver and packed to move two weeks later. I struggled a lot that fall semester. I got ghosted by my first social media gig in Denver and never got paid for the work I did. I felt like a little girl again, calling out for connection yet struggling to find it. PR is people forward and I felt like I couldn’t find my people. Once again, I felt too limited by what made me different.
And yet, my feet carried me forward. I outran that monster eating away at ambition and I outran every limitation my mind and body had tried to set for me. I sought mentorship at a social media marketing company. I was creating PR strategies for small businesses and writing for books. When my portfolio grew, so did my faith in myself, and the path began to lighten.
In the blink of an eye, three years to be exact, I am an intern at Barefoot PR, a company that fits my values and helps me follow my dreams. Everything I didn’t think was possible because I was simply a little different is here in front of me. I’m determined to make that big splash. Take everything I’ve been given and everything I’ve made for myself and make it mean something in this industry.
Written by Kaia Hein, Barefoot PR’s Summer 2026 Strategic Communications Intern
