Ever since realizing advertising is my passion, I’ve been thinking about moments that didn’t seem important at the time—and honestly, they weren’t—but now, taking a few steps back from where I am today, it’s so obvious. I just didn’t know it yet.

1: Way way back: Back in my day, when TV was cable, you could either watch live TV with commercials or record shows to the DVR so you could skip the ad breaks. Sure, I recorded stuff—but most of the time I either forgot I could skip or I was so enthralled that I didn’t even realize it was an ad break.

Most people used commercial breaks to go to the bathroom or grab a snack—and I did too—but when one of my ads came on, I’d rush back to the TV to watch it. To me, some ads just became unskippable.

2: 6th Grade: I was in a Principles of Marketing class, and I had a project. Honestly, now that I think about it, I have no idea what the actual assignment was. All I know is that my “client” was General Mills’ Lucky Charms.

Everyone knows the best part of Lucky Charms is the marshmallows. I did a little investigating and found out you could buy marshmallow-only bags on Amazon—but they were bootlegs, and the shapes were kind of janky. Now, of course, you can buy marshmallow-only straight from Lucky himself.

Anyway, while Googling “marshmallow only,” I came across Biz Markie’s Lucky Charms Marshmallow Only commercial/music video and became instantly obsessed. I didn’t know who Biz Markie was, but it didn’t matter—I liked the song, and I loved the idea.

Was I a huge Lucky Charms girl before? No. Did I become one? Yes.

Have you ever poured a bowl and wish that it could be, free of all the oats marshmallow only. Well today's your lucky day, your wish just came true oh snap 10 boxes maybe one's for you!Youuuu want marshmallow only, but you see there's only 10 so use #lucky10sweepstakes

Again, I still have no idea what the actual project was, but I recreated that Biz Markie commercial. Recently, I reached out to my old teacher in hopes she still had the video, but sadly, she doesn’t—and it’s nowhere to be found on my computer either.

3: When monograms were it! (they still are btw)