Sharing My Lens
By Juliette Nelson
CEO, JUNURI, NURILENS
JUNURI
Looking back on the past decade of my life, I have to say, life has been quite a ride. Nevertheless, it has birthed something profound and beautiful that represents my learning journey through this thing called life.
I was an English teacher in South Korea for one year. I was exhausted from six years of college, which began during my sophomore year in high school. I also didn’t have any job offers lined up as my peers did when I graduated, so I needed an escape. It was something that I wasn’t convinced that I was going to do until the plane was flying over Japan and I realized that it couldn’t turn around. That year was the beginning of the definition of Juliette. It was my first time living outside of my parents’ house and learning so much about who I was and what I accepted as my truth. It was there that I discovered this love for teaching and uplifting others. I’d dreamed of being a teacher, like my father as a kid, but I threw the dream away when, in the 6th grade, I discovered the “hard truth” that teachers didn’t get the day off on superintendent’s day. I didn’t care to be a classroom teacher, but the discovery of my purpose would prove that there was more to this story that I was yet to discover.
During the last leg of my time in South Korea, my pastor, also the director of my school, gave me the Korean name, Na Nuri, which comes from the Korean verb meaning “to share”. He commissioned me to share my gift wherever I would go. I remembered asking God to use me to touch people from different backgrounds and cultures. I didn’t know what that meant, but those words were profound and would set a precedent for how I would grow within my purpose.
In 2017, I experienced a level of loss that shook me to my core. One of my best friends passed away, tragically, to say the least. To be transparent, it messed me up. His death was one of quite a few within a short period of time. I was left having to figure out my “why”. Toward the end of the year, I went on a fast, for all of the wrong reasons. I was asking God for answers to questions I knew the answers to, but I walked out of that fast with JuNuri. It was my business partner and one of my students’ parents that reminded me that I had a purpose. I was able to use my gift to make a larger impact. Within six months, I founded JuNuri and shared it with my village and my community.
Share My Lens… That is what I was meant to do. This Haitian-American woman was called to empower, encourage, and uplift. Even when I threw away my childhood dream of being a classroom teacher for a trivial reason, my purpose would signify my being an educator and equipping my clients with the tools and resources to be successful. In sharing my lens, I am reminded of the lenses that were shared with me. This is the community and the village that has poured into me, spoken life into me, and held me accountable. JuNuri is bigger than just me. It’s about the team that works toward upholding our mission of empowering people to achieve the highest standard of their purpose. I say purpose because people don’t always achieve potential. I personally think it sometimes can be tarnished by others. But “purpose” is something assigned to you. It’s your calling. It represents the impact that you were meant to make. It’s not assigned to a title. It’s about the big picture. And that’s what myself and the team strive for day-to-day. JuNuri [Pursuit] is about the students and professionals that we serve. They are destined to be great and we invest in them with that in mind.
So this continues the lens I am sharing with you…
Publishing
I used to be a host on a Friday night Facebook Live talk show that I did with my friends and one of the viewers approached me about writing a memoir. It was crazy that someone, a total stranger, saw it in me to write a book. We had a preliminary conversation, and I told them that I’d circle back. Months later, I’d remembered that I needed to follow up with them and it was at that time that I heard a voice say, “Chill out, you don’t even know your testimony. That’s not even the one meant to tell your story.” Within a month, came another roller coaster ride on my life journey again. That testimony was working itself without me realizing it. Yet, I still struggled with the thought of who would share my story and how.
I remember having a talk with one of my mentees about the challenges of transitioning from high school to college, and that’s when the bubble popped in my head. There was a need to provide guidance to students on the college journey, but I still remained stuck and how to move forward. As I approached my birthday, I came to the conclusion that I needed to give something to Juliette. It was then, that Sharing My Lens: The College Experience was born. I was going to share the gems with my younger high school self; those gems that I picked up along my life’s learning journey.
Sharing My Lens: The College Experience birthed JUNURI Publishing. In empowering people to achieve the highest standard of their purpose, we would now empower writers to share their Passion, Purpose, Vision, and Story. JUNURI Publishing has opened up a space to allow people to share their lens.
Nurilens
Since I was a child, I have loved to collect things. I collected keychains, cheap watches, brooches, and things that reflected my personality. Glasses were no different. Living in South Korea, I found that I could get several affordable pairs of eyewear that were fashionable and could go with my different wardrobes, so I started stacking up. I think I’ve purchased, at some point or another, about 20 pairs. Some had bling, others had swirls, and shapes, and sizes. When I founded JUNURI, I remember saying that the next pair of glasses I purchased would be ones I designed, but I never took myself seriously. Ironically, these same glasses I have had for years are now breaking, one by one.
Given that my brain is like an internet browser that has a million tabs open (I have a bunch of tabs open on three browsers, across separate monitors as I share this story lol), there are so many ideas that will randomly pop up and stick at random. During the Christmas season, a couple of years ago, I discovered “blue-light blocking glasses”. Gamers often wear them to reduce the eye strain from sitting in front of their screen playing video games all day. I learned about its benefits and became interested in learning more. It opened an internet browser tab in my head. Students and professionals sit for hours in front of their screens and would benefit from this. I am a student and professional that sits for hours in front of a screen every day, and I would benefit from them. That was the first internet browser tab that stuck.
Months later, the next internet browser tab that popped up was discovering how to fill prescriptions for these blue-light blockers. I did some research and started some conversations and that began the journey. Talking to optical laboratory specialists turned into me putting pencil to paper and sketching out designs for glasses, which led to me getting a sketchbook. Letting my creativity flow on paper felt great and liberating.
I can’t tell you that I remember how the wood idea came out. Honestly, it probably was another internet browser tab that, once again, stuck. But it was symbolic. It had meaning and purpose that I was yet to discover. During my time going through the product development process for the frames, I was also learning, healing, and evolving. Because I believe that there is a reason for everything, I really needed to understand what using wood meant to me. It had to mean more than the fact that I have a mom who loves handcrafted wooden everything. I discovered that wood symbolizes knowledge and wisdom, which was part of my life’s learning journey of growing, evolving, choosing to heal, and choosing to love who God made me to be.
NURILENS, which was inspired by my close friend and sister who also inspired the title of my book, Sharing my Lens: The College Experience, literally means to “share” my “lens”. I continue to live according to that calling I received when I lived in South Korea and was given the Korean name, “Na Nuri”, which means “to share”. I am blessed to have been able to “See through the Lens of my Purpose”. It’s been quite a journey, but so worth the ride. There’s a biblical verse (Habakkuk 2:2-3) that says, “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end, it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, It will not tarry.” It’s a reminder to myself that no matter the challenges that come along this journey in achieving my purpose, I need to continue focusing on that lens. With that reminder, I created a product that would challenge my customers to do the same. Every time they would open up their eyeglasses case, they would step into a treasure and an experience that encouraged them to see their purpose and remain on their path to excellence, no matter the challenges.
So, with JUNURI [Pursuit], I encourage you to strive to achieve the highest level of your purpose. With JUNURI Publishing, I challenge you to share your passion, your story, and your lens. With NURILENS, step into your learning experience, in life, and stay focused on your purpose as well as the impact that you were born to make.