A reflection on how life’s journeys—across countries, challenges, and dreams—shape creative work, inspired by the stories of Cervantes, baseball pitcher Chris Martin, and my own career in landscape architecture.
Every landscape has a story.
When I wrote my very first blog post, that was the core belief I shared: every place we design carries a story shaped by history, nature, and human spirit. Over time, I realized the same truth applies to people. Every person’s path is a story—a series of twists, challenges, and dreams—that shapes not just who they are, but also the work they create. In fact, I believe the journey someone takes deeply influences their design thinking, their artistic background, or at least the spirit and will they bring into their creative life.Life rarely moves in a straight line, especially for those who dare to dream beyond borders. When I look back on history, literature, and even modern sports, I see a surprising pattern: greatness is often forged not in comfort, but through constant movement, hardship, and resilience.
Take Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish author best known for Don Quixote, widely regarded as the first modern novel. Cervantes lived a life marked by incredible hardship—imprisoned multiple times, wounded in battle, even enslaved in Algiers. Financial struggles and political troubles dogged him across Spain and beyond. Yet despite these ordeals, or perhaps because of them, he created a timeless masterpiece. Don Quixote is a story that captures both the absurdity and nobility of chasing impossible dreams—a mirror, in some ways, of Cervantes' own life.