Meet Stephanie Ruiz | Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Ruiz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I’m originally from a small, Hallmark-like town in New Jersey called Haddonfield (If you’re a rom-com fan like me, you’ll know it as the place Harry says he’s from in When Harry Met Sally), but I don’t think I’ve ever had a straight answer to this question. I spent my early childhood in Haddonfield, but a few years into elementary school, my family moved to Austin, TX, Houston a few years later, and then eventually settled in Los Angeles shortly into my high school career. After graduation, I moved to San Luis Obispo, a small, agricultural area in the Central Valley, for college.

I could say that I feel like an East Coast girl at heart, but my childhood and early adulthood were colored and shaded by different places and people. It feels more honest to say that I’m from all over.

As a kid, it felt like we moved without roots — as if we could be plucked up at any moment and transported to the next place, dog in the backseat, kids stuffed into a car pressed up against boxes and blankets and whatever item we couldn’t bear to hand over to the illusive moving truck, which always appeared right on time.

But with every move across the country, I became more adaptable and found new ways to navigate unfamiliar places and people. More than that, it gave me a hunger to roam and adventure, and every few years in LA, I get an itch to start somewhere new, even though this has become more of home than any place before it.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m really fascinated by the mundane moments in interpersonal relationships, so I feel like I try to capture that whenever I see or dream them up, whether that’s in a short story or with my film camera. But my sense of my art is constantly changing, and it’s often hard to ignore the imposter syndrome that lingers in the corners of my mind, ready to pounce on fresh ideas with claws sharpened by insecurity and uncertainty.

I’m learning that most of the work with my creative endeavors comes in the trying, the consistency. That’s what I was ultimately looking for when I committed to a year of The Happy Medium — one blog a month about anything. But in the end, it turned out to be a place for me to process and remember, grieve and celebrate.

Most of the stuff that I write or the photos that I take are not usually pieces that I’m particularly proud of, but I’m finding out as I go along that it’s more-so about how it fuels me toward the next one. And with photography, it allows me to capture moments that I find beautiful — a lot like those mundane ones I talked about earlier — so I can tuck them away and have them forever.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Depends on the friend and what they like to do!

If they’re interested in food, I would take them to Hanoo Kalbi in the Valley for some Korean barbecue or BCD Tofu House in Koreatown. Or maybe we’d take a trip to Echo Park for some Thai food at Sticky Rice and a martini down the street at Bar Flores.

If they’re interested in activities, I’d pack a picnic and take us on a trip to the Getty or the Huntington Library in spring. Maybe even a trip to the beach, complete with burritos to eat in the sand and the sun. Or if they’re big on thrifting, I’d take them to Society of St. Vincent de Paul downtown to search for treasures.

And for my coffee-fanatic friends, I’d find a new place for us to try! There are so many great coffee shops in LA, and I haven’t been to half of them. Plus, experiencing new things together feels like a treat when your friends are scattered far and wide.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It’s hard to imagine being where I am today, personally and professionally, without my family. My sister is bold and bubbly, and she continually teaches me how to find joy and laughter, even in the seasons where those feel scarce. My brother, a writer and musician, pushes me to keep art and creativity at the forefront of my brain, without making me feel as though output and production are the main objective.

I’m thankful for my mom’s clarity and guidance (she’s become one of my most trusted advisors), as well as her commitment to my constant hydration. (“Drink water,” she says, pretty much on sight.) And, of course, we can thank my father for his dedication to giving his kids a well-rounded education; he read all three of his kids Shakespeare as bedtime stories, consistently quotes movie lines to test our memory of popular 80s and 90s films, and has played Casey Kasem’s Top 40 every Saturday morning for as long as I can remember. I like to think it was his way of showing us that art can take many forms. Art, he still tells me, is for everyone.

Finally, I want to shoutout my partner of many years now for loving me so tenderly and creating a space for me to be curious, honest, and true.

Website: thehappymediumblog.com

Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/stephanieruiz-writer