"I want to let the project get its own shape." (Melissa Castan bonus episode)

Daring Forever (Find your Extraordinary)

This bonus episode highlights standout moments from Radim Malinic's interview with Melissa Castan, a Mexico-born animator, illustrator, and

Key takeaways

• Embracing uncertainty and being 'lost' can lead to deeper understanding and personal growth.

Main topics

• Creative reinvention
• Embracing uncertainty

Notable quotes

"I want to let the project get its own shape."

Conclusion

Melissa Castan's journey exemplifies how daring creativity thrives through openness,

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hey, welcome to this bonus episode of the Daring Forever podcast. As you know, this is my opportunity to zoom in on a few standout moments from this week's interview and find those moments that deserve a second look and to dig deeper into what makes them special. This week, I spoke to another Barcelona resident, this time a Mexico-born animator, illustrator and community builder named Mel Castan. In our conversation, we talked about her experience of growing up in a military family. about how ADHD can be a source of creative obsession and many of her experiences that changed her path. The episode published a few days ago was titled Dare to Let Ideas Have a Home and it was one of those conversations that I felt really privileged to bring to the world. That was because Mel is a wonderful and generous human being that the world needs to hear about. If you haven't checked out a full episode, let me share with you these four standout moments. Speaker 2 (0:54) Probably yes, and maybe this was a whole day feeling. I started walking around the Born and Gothic in the center of the city. For three days, I would just get lost. No map, no mobile, and just be like, I'm going to figure out and I will learn this city like the palm of my hand. So that was the way for me to... physically actually get into it, go deep and figure out by being in the center of a city without any connection or way of connecting myself. Because I didn't even have a mobile connected to the Wi-Fi back then. I didn't have a SIM card. So I was like, okay, this is how I'm going to learn. I'm just going to get right into the Gothic, try to figure out all these little cute streets and walk until I know where I am. Speaker 1 (1:43) This moment was fascinating. I absolutely adore it because when you think about it, we arrive in new cities, especially now with our smartphones. I mean, maybe my parents had maps of the city. And in Mel's instance, when she moved from Mexico City to Barcelona, she had no phone, no SIM card and no plan and decided that she actually wanted to learn the place to just to wander around it. So she walked around Bourne and the Gothic Quarter until it became familiar, not just in her mind, but also in her body. It was a lovely, let's say, slightly rebellious way to meet the city. You can trade the illusion of a control for real physical knowledge. And I think there's something really remarkable about being in that moment, because what do we do now? Take photos, look on the phone, try to Google maps, get left, right, left, right. And there's something truly magical when you just look up and really take it all in and slow down. And I guess in Meryl's instance here, it was about how now she approaches everything.