 Hi everyone, I'm Kel Santiago Pilarski. Nearly a decade ago, I bought a one-way ticket to a country I'd never been to, and it changed my life. I used to be a nurse with specialization in urology and gynecology. I helped deliver babies, assisted in surgeries, and ran diagnostic tests. I'm currently a happiness engineer at wordpress.com automatic, and it has zero connection with my previous medical career. So, how did I get here? Normally, when someone's a graduate of nursing, they'll be a nurse. But I wanted to see how far I can go and which fields I can take on without relying on my medical degree. I don't want my life to be a one-career story, and I also wanted to get away from the medical scene. So if you watch medical series, you know what it's like. There's a lot of action, and when I was working in the hospital, everything was fast-paced. I felt like I was always on the go, and it's difficult to grow professionally when you're tired physically and emotionally. I also wanted to get away from the routine and repetitive tasks and want to add some variety in my day-to-day life and experience something new. I'd like to develop other skills and do something dynamic, be able to work anytime and anywhere, and wordpress gave me those possibilities. When I was working in the hospital, I was looking for other things I could do to switch into another field. Eventually, I got a side job that allowed me to work remotely by writing medical articles for an online magazine using wordpress, and that's when I first got to know it. For a couple of years that I was doing that, I was able to explore the flat platform, and I easily got other side jobs related to that, like working for an online store also using wordpress. Fast forward to 2014, I was recruited by a wordpress startup, and it allowed me to work abroad and finally got an opportunity to work abroad, which is exciting as it's totally new to me. I just needed it at that time. I remember when I was at the airport getting ready to board a plane, I had in my hand a one-way ticket and remaining savings in my pocket, and in my mind, I had a hundred questions and a thousand doubts. Not only that I was broke, but that job ticks all the boxes. Live in a new country, work in a new field, and get the chance to test my abilities, and guess what? I got to do it all in Japan, and I thought, this is it. I'll give it a shot. In my new wordpress role at first, I was resistant to change. Suddenly, everything was new, and I was, as I was going through this transition, I was questioning my decisions. I felt mainly intimidated and overwhelmed by the new environment. I am from a family of artists. My father is a comic illustrator and writer, and my mom and siblings are painters, chocolate sculptors. I was a tattoo artist. So how am I going to do this job? I didn't grow up with a computer. I realized that Wordpress wasn't as terrifying as I thought it would be, as it has a lot of well-documented open resources available to me and accessible to anyone from different tech and cultural backgrounds. And that helped me have a quick role transformation in Wordpress. As I get more involved in Wordpress, the farther I get from nursing, and that just gave me a clear picture of what I really want. It's not only because I'm one of the millions of nurses, but in Wordpress, I can stand out and create my own path here. But mainly, it's also because I'm from the Philippines, and there are not a lot of women in tech. By doing a career detour and switching it to a new field and ultimately ending up as happiness engineer, I could be a role model for other people who would like to have a new career path and especially be a role model for other girls. Adapting to this redirected career sounds scary at first, but it wasn't really, especially when I found my people and my place. I started contributing to Wordpress in 2014. I attended meetups, word camps, and that's when I first got to know the Wordpress community. It's very welcoming and that helped me adapt in my new role. I also got to meet folks from around the world who started out from different fields and are now into Wordpress. By going to events, meetups, connecting with others, I learned lots of new things and it even opened new opportunities for me. When I was in WordCampus Nashville, I met this lovely person, Naisha, who encouraged me to join automatic, and that was over five years ago. At automatic, the first line of our creed goes, I will never stop learning. It also means I will never stop teaching. As a happiness engineer, I always learn something new from my colleagues and continue to teach and help our customers. I found that it's important to continue learning, to not be stagnant and be left behind by the speed of development and product growth. Remember that you don't need to get the right career the first time. Seek opportunities and try things until you find your purpose. Embrace the journey, even if it's not a straight path. And when there's a roadblock preventing you from moving forward and upward, create a brand new course. Attend meetups, networking events, connect with others. Have a chat with someone whose work intrigues you. WordCampus is a great place for that. The person sitting next to you could be your new connection that can help you in your career change and never stop learning. Several years ago, when I decided to take a career detour and book a one-way ticket to start a new life in a new country, I didn't think of having a great career. I simply thought of wanting change and the thought of the impact of that change that can have towards myself and others. I didn't know that that small desire to want change can turn into something beautiful and something great. So tell me, if you had the opportunity to change your job for the better and be the person that you want to be, would you do it? Thank you very much.