After winning the student category of the New York State Game Dev Challenge in 2018, my teammates and I founded Aesthetician Labs with the goal of launching our winning game, Crazy Platez. Being the newest among us to game development, I found myself up to my ears in new skills and opportunities to stretch myself. It felt overwhelming for quite a while! 6 years later, though, I feel confident saying that Aesthetician Labs is stronger than ever. Personally, I've developed my skills in project and team management, absolutely - but also gained so much experience in running and operating a business, navigating hardship, and maximizing on failures.And as a team? Time and time again we've shown our ability to adapt and pivot - a skill that I consider the cornerstone of how we've made it so far. We've also all become better communicators, more responsive to feedback, and more resilient... not to mention better at the actual creation of our games. I consider my two primarily roles at AeLa - production and studio management - to be some of the most diverse "jobs" I could have. Every day asks something new of me! And day over day, I love what I do (and how it shapes 'who I am') more and more.