I grew up with a non-verbal autistic brother. That is probably why I care whether a message actually lands.

I grew up translating. My brother is autistic and non-verbal, so most of what passed between him and the rest of the world went through someone else. What I learned early is that being right is not the same as being understood. You can have the correct information and still fail to transmit it, and the failure is rarely the other person's fault.

That standard is stricter than most workplaces need. They are not usually trying to reach someone who cannot ask for clarification. The principle still holds though, and it is the one I work to: if the message did not land, the message was not finished.

I did not go from school into a communications degree into a comms job. I started university in a different field, changed direction, worked through the degree rather than after it, and spent those years running things of my own: a regulated live-animal export business and a content channel, neither of which I initially set out to build.

That route is less tidy than a straight one, and I would not trade it. Most of what I understand about how organisations actually function came from handling the parts nobody enjoys: permits, shipment logs, standards, carrier rules, and the gap between what a process says and what people do.

My work so far has leaned toward the part of communication that has consequence: internal messaging, documentation, making written material that people actually use. I want a role in internal communication or documentation, with the aim of moving toward change support from there.

What I am less drawn to is work whose main purpose is to look good rather than to function. I would rather be given a problem than a brand.

I am also settled on what I am not going back to. I spent years producing content full time and left it deliberately, so I am not looking to return to that pace. Beyond that, I do not need the role to be any particular shape. The situations where I have learned most were the ones I did not choose.