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Gillian is originally from Bakersfield, CA. She recently moved to the area with her husband and is a recent grad from UC Merced. As our newest team member, she brings her curiosity, enthusiasm, and eagerness to learn into everything she does. We are excited to have her join our team and are stoked to introduce y’all to her! Read on to learn more about her.
Alora: What are you most excited about working at The Pearl Works?
Gillian: I’m excited to build some vital professional skills and find out what I like doing. This is my first real job out of college, so it’s a great opportunity to figure myself out and meet people with experiences that I can learn from.
What is a valuable lesson you have learned recently?
[I] don’t have to have an opinion on everything.
What’s your superpower and how will it save the world?
Organization systems keep my world spinning. I try my hardest to be as efficient and direct as possible about work, and even when I’m scattered internally, I love helping other people figure out how to find and execute things smoothly. Maybe giving people that little bit of extra time and assurance would save their worlds like it saves mine 😄.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed with work?:
Take a moment in a quiet place and breathe, listen to calming music or just the sound of the room, and reset to taking things one step at a time. I get overwhelmed when I start thinking of challenges as huge, singular problems, instead of little pieces that I can chip away at, so reminding myself that I need to start small is crucial.
What have you learned from playing and organizing TTRPGs?
Being part of a TTRPG group, especially a long-running regular group, is an exercise in collaboration (and sometimes compromise). As a player and as a GM, you have to learn to relinquish control of your characters and the story and let other people shape them. You have to accept change and offer changes in return. This is a skill that everyone has to learn somehow, but being able to train that muscle in a controlled environment has been a huge benefit to me.
Anything else you want us to know about you?
Community and friendship are so important to me. If you want to say hi, or you need someone to chat with, go ahead and do it! I like to think that I’m a very friendly person, if a little awkward. Don’t be afraid to come over!
Gillian, Welcome to The Pearl Works! We are happy to have you and excited to be a part of your growth journey.