Monica Marulanda

In some bizarre way, I owe my career in advertising to my grandmother, Doña Bertha.

The small, white haired Marulanda family matriarch was the sole killer of 2 of my budding careers as a child. At age 8, she killed any aspirations to follow in my father’s footsteps as a veterinarian, when she muttered the words: “You will die taking care of strays.” At age 10, my next aspiration to become a painter was killed during a family gathering. My grandmother proclaimed to all within earshot: “se va a morir de hambre.” Loosely translated: “You are going to die a starving artist.”

Cut to the next 8 years of me trying to figure something else out…. Sure, art continued to be a very important part of my life, but I was pretty confident that there was no way it would “pay the bills.” And I definitely had no desire to die a starving artist- thanks Doña Bertha.

Years later, after dabbling in 3 or so majors, I walked into Mel Stein’s “Principles in Advertising” class. Suddenly, I realized that all the years of me singing jingles to myself and playing games such as “guess the comercial in the first 2 seconds” meant I was MEANT for advertising. And it was meant for me.