Working Through Uncertainty

Ekky described a cocoon. Not a polished transformation, but a space where ideas could exist without needing to be perfect. The fellowship, he said, helped him move past the need to get everything right before starting. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just do it.”

Hannah followed with a marathon. She described periods of intense effort followed by slower stretches where asking for help became necessary. “At first, we’re running as fast as possible. But there’s some periods where we feel kind of tired. So we just kind of slow down, asking people for help. Then at the end, we’re still here. We still finished.”

Matt compared the experience to reading a book. Some chapters were engaging, others tiring. Sometimes the story went somewhere unexpected. Still, he kept going. “Sometimes reading a book, it’s fun. You’re very into it. But sometimes when you’re tired, you just put the book down. But still, you know you need to finish that book.”

Shrena described stepping outside a box. The fellowship helped her see limits she had placed on herself, and what became possible once she moved beyond them.

“When you are inside a box, you have walls, ceilings, limitations. You kind of set that for yourself. Like, I can do this much. But being outside the box, you know you can do more. I realized I had more potential than I thought.”

Shrena and Matt both talked about immersion as a test of adaptability. Working with Cuttlefish Digital, they rotated through three different teams, each with different work styles and expectations. “All three teams were so different,” Shrena said. “We had to adapt and change ourselves according to the team and the work that was required.”

For Matt, the rotations pushed him to lower barriers he had set for himself. “At first I had some kind of barriers that I put very high. I thought some tasks would be difficult or challenging.

But later on, I need to try to lower down my barriers and try to learn new things. Because this is an opportunity given to me, I should not let it go.”

Hannah said she expected masterclasses to feel academic, but found the most value in sessions grounded in lived experience. “At first, when I first heard about masterclass, I was kind of expecting it to be very heavy in terms of knowledge. But then I feel like we could also learn from their experience, which is very great.”

For Ekky, mentorship became a way of recalibrating ambition and learning to focus.

“I tend to be an ambitious person. It’s good to know that there’s guidance to slow down or to be more focused on things that need to be prioritized. It’s okay to be ambitious, but it’s also important to be focused.”

Hannah described struggling through unfamiliar tools like social listening. “I struggle a lot. I even had like three or four hours of meetings with one of the team members to help me do that.” She was also filming herself for TikTok, at first feeling shy and self-conscious. Over time, her focus shifted away from appearance and toward message.

For Ekky, mentorship became a way of recalibrating ambition and learning to focus.

“At first I was very shy… but after doing it again and again, I realized that people don’t really care how I look. The content is more important.”

Shrena realized her video-making skills could extend beyond personal social media. “Before I used to feel like my video making skills would be very limited to just social media, like personal social media. But I’ve realized that I can do more.” She also gained confidence in speaking in front of others. “Before I used to stop a lot, pause a lot. But now when I go there and I see people, I’m like, okay, I can do it, and I do it.”

Matt developed both technical skills, like using new tools, and soft skills such as communication and responsibility. Ekky developed his approach to storytelling, learning to frame narratives in ways that connect more closely with people.

For Shrena, that moment came while filming with a family in Nepal. “When I was there shooting, they insisted, ‘you should eat with us.’ They welcomed me into their home. That’s when it became much more than an assignment.”

For Hannah, the impact became visible when friends began texting her. “Oh hey Hannah, I saw your video,” they’d write, acknowledging her influence when they chose wash-off masks over sheet masks.

Matt found meaning through experimentation, testing ways to communicate climate issues around the Southeast Asian Games without relying only on negative framing.

Ekky reflected on meeting families and farmers for his documentary in Bali. Observing people who had found ways to do what they loved, despite difficulties, made him question what kind of work felt worth pursuing. “I really want to do something that I love as well,” he said.

Four words that encapsulated just how much the year had meant to the fellows and to the Love Frankie and Cuttlefish Digital teams who had been alongside them this whole journey.