On Becoming

In this episode, Jess reflects on a quiet, unexpected return to ritual during her time in Spain. Set against the noise of a life in motion, she explores how injury, solitude, and displacement softened something in her, leading her back to spaces she once outgrew.

This is not a story about religion in the traditional sense, but about rhythm, surrender, and the search for peace in a world that rarely pauses. From Catholic schoolgirl to years of movement, performance, and independence, Jess traces the loss and rediscovery of stillness, and what it means to feel held again, not by certainty, but by presence.

Please leave a review and rate the show on the Spotify or Apple Podcast app if you enjoyed this episode.

Connect on ⁠Instagram⁠

Cover art photography by ⁠Nergal Youkhana⁠

Directed and produced by Jess

Maybe choosing yourself was never about being untouchable. Maybe it's about learning to be touchable again and sitting with how strange and unfamiliar that feels after years of building a life that didn't require it.

This episode sits with a pattern that's hard to name because it looks so much like strength. The five-year plan. The morning routine. The one-way ticket. The next city, the next version of you. From the outside, it reads as ambition. From the inside, something is always just slightly out of reach.

Jess gets honest about the ways avoidance hid inside her independence for years in the jobs she left, the cities she moved through, and the quiet exhaustion of a life lived always one step ahead of stillness.

Please leave a review and rate the show on the Spotify or Apple Podcast app if you enjoyed this episode.

Connect on ⁠Instagram⁠

Cover art photography by ⁠Nergal Youkhana⁠

Directed and produced by Jess

Jess reflects on the quiet exhaustion of being “the capable one.” Raised between cultures that valued resilience, independence, and hard work, she explores how strength can become identity and how, over time, that identity can begin to feel heavy.

Through personal stories and cultural reflection, she unpacks the tension many women experience between achievement and softness, self-sufficiency and the desire to be held. From patterns in work and relationships to the subtle ways over-functioning shows up in love, this episode traces the journey from proving to softening.

A grounded and introspective exploration of what it means to shift from survival into surrender, and to rediscover a version of strength that makes space for rest, connection, and ease.

Please leave a review and rate the show on the Spotify or Apple Podcast app if you enjoyed this episode.

Connect on ⁠Instagram⁠

Cover art photography by ⁠Nergal Youkhana⁠

Directed and produced by Jess

In this episode of On Becoming, Jess explores the quiet power of changing how we see ourselves, beginning with a long-awaited decision to cut her hair. What starts as a physical transformation unfolds into something deeper, shaped by heartbreak, reinvention, and the subtle ways identity is tied to appearance.

Drawing on personal reflections, cultural influences, and moments of vulnerability, she unpacks the emotional weight we place on beauty, femininity, and belonging. From navigating loss of confidence to rebuilding it from within, this episode traces the in-between space where who you were and who you’re becoming briefly collide.

A thoughtful exploration of letting go, soft rebellion, and the unexpected clarity that can come from stepping outside of your own reflection.

Please leave a review and rate the show on the Spotify or Apple Podcast app if you enjoyed this episode.

Connect on ⁠Instagram⁠

Cover art photography by ⁠Nergal Youkhana⁠

Directed and produced by Jess

Sydney to Amsterdam. No return ticket. No real plan.

This is the episode where Jess traces it all back, the pandemic that held her in place, the New Year's Eve at a petrol station that broke something open, falling in love in two languages, and what two years cycling through European fog actually taught her about belonging.

Some stories you carry for years before you know how to tell them. This is one of those.

Please leave a review and rate the show on the Spotify or Apple Podcast app if you enjoyed this episode.

Connect on ⁠Instagram⁠

Cover art photography by ⁠Nergal Youkhana⁠

Directed and produced by Jess

In this episode of On Becoming, Jess reflects on her journey with alcohol and what it meant to step away from it. Five years on, she revisits the environments, identities, and emotions that shaped her relationship with drinking, from early experiences across Australia and the Czech Republic to the quiet turning point that led her to stop.

Through personal journal excerpts and honest reflection, she explores the tension between belonging and self-respect, the cultural weight of alcohol, and the subtle ways it can both connect and disconnect us. This is not a story of extremes, but of awareness. Of noticing when something no longer serves you, and having the courage to choose differently.

An invitation to reflect, to question, and to consider what it means to come home to yourself.

Please leave a review and rate the show on the Spotify or Apple Podcast app if you enjoyed this episode.

Connect on Instagram

Cover art photography by Nergal Youkhana

Directed and produced by Jess

A small corner of the internet for quiet reflection. On Becoming documents the feelings, findings, and questions that come with living life a little differently, wherever that takes you.