Finding Your Way In

There’s a moment many creatives recognize.

You walk into a room where you don’t quite know where you fit yet. Conversations are already in motion. People seem at ease, connected in ways you’re still working toward. It’s easy to hesitate — to question whether you belong there at all.

We often call these moments networking — though it rarely feels as natural as the word suggests.

Over time, that definition begins to shift.

Confidence in creative work rarely arrives fully formed. It develops over time — by showing up, navigating uncertainty, and learning to trust yourself in real time. Discomfort isn’t separate from that process. It’s part of it.

For Rita Carmona, the current Experience Resident in Sound Post, that shift became clearer across two recent film festivals.

Earlier this year, she returned to the Watsonville Film Festival to support two films she had worked on. The experience felt grounded — shaped by shared history, care, and a sense of belonging within a vibrant Latinx creative community. It wasn’t about meeting new people as much as it was about reconnecting, celebrating growth, and recognizing the relationships that had formed over time.

A few weeks later, at NFFTY, everything was new — new faces, new conversations, new energy. Moving through that space, Rita focused on staying present. She took breaks when needed and let moments unfold rather than trying to direct them.

And in that shift, connection happened.

Not forced.
Not performed.

But found.

What began to take shape was a different understanding of what these spaces offer — not a series of interactions to manage, but an opportunity to participate. To share what you care about. To listen. To find the people who meet you there.

For Rita, that often came through conversations about sound. In speaking openly about how she experiences the world through it, she found others responding with the same curiosity and energy — small moments of recognition that stayed with her.

Over time, those moments accumulate. The room begins to feel different. Not because it has changed, but because you have.

This is where networking gives way to something else.

Community.

Not something you force, but something you recognize — in shared curiosity, in honest conversation, in the feeling of being seen.

And in that shift, what once felt like effort begins to feel like belonging.