When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it

The journey of me becoming a screenwriter

I first read The Alchemist when I was 16-years-old in my Honors French class. Despite reading it in a foreign language, every word touched my heart and made me say, “Ah, yes. This makes sense. This is how it all works.’ It was a knowing. A deep remembrance. My soul understood it.

I then re-read it when I was in my early twenties. I was able to understand it even further. Not only did my heart feel it, but also my logical mind finally grasped the concepts, inspiring me to take action upon my dreams. ICI ET NU was birthed a few years after.

Fast-forward to today. I’m currently re-reading it again as a 28-year-old who has already brought many dreams to life (being an author, owning my dream apartment, traveling the world, following my soul’s mission by serving others through my words). It touched my soul then, it touches my soul now. Differently, though.

This time, I’m not reading it to feel inspired, I’m reading it as confirmation of the journey I have been on for the past 15 months of realizing my latest dream of being a screenwriter, of listening to my heart—writing my first feature film.

To describe the journey in a nutshell—it has been magical. Divinely-led. Breathtakingly beautiful. Purposeful. Expansive. Eye-opening. Aligned.

And despite The Alchemist being an extraordinary book that explains the process of realizing one’s dream…after all, it is a ‘fictional’ book. So, I wanted to share my own personal story, with profound detail, on how every word that Paolo Coehlo wrote is in fact, the truth, of finding your Personal Legend.

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

I felt called to share the intricate details and the magical ways God works, to prove to you that anything, and I mean anything, is possible. To teach you how to trust your intuition and heart more than you ever have. To allow you to receive divine guidance, to understand how to notice the ‘omens’, to guide you into taking aligned action towards your own dreams. To observe the fears and doubts, and do it anyways.

Not through a fictional story, but through my story—a human being living a human experience in modern times.

Why am I sharing this? Because the peace, pride, love, joy, excitement and gratitude in my heart that I now feel is what I want each and every one of you to feel. I genuinely mean that. I want you to recognize how powerful, limitless and supported you are, so that you too can arrive where I have. Because God has planned a beautiful life for you, and you deserve to light up this world with your unique brilliance.

I will preface—the red thread across all of the various milestones within the past year is rooted in a simple prayer that I whisper every morning: “God, show me where to go, what to do, who to speak to, what to say and what to hear. Guide me on my path so that I follow your will, timing and plan versus mine. Give me a nudge or an intuitive action that leads me to my destiny.” Keep this in mind as you read.

So, here it is. This is the full story of how I became a screenwriter.

Note: this story is very long, I understand that, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it and read to the end.

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January 5th, 2024: I was at a rock bottom in my health journey. This was almost a year post-op to remove my Endometriosis, yet everyday, a new symptom would emerge. I was ready to give up. And I don’t say that lightly. I had prayed to God every single day to heal me, and I felt like he wasn’t hearing me. I couldn’t see myself ever getting out of the pain I was feeling. Even when I’d picture my future—married, with kids, living my ‘best’ life—there was always a cloud of physical pain above it all. I was ready to surrender the life I was given. To describe the state of my mental health… depressed would be an understatement.

January 6th, 2024: I decided to pray to God differently. “God, I don’t need you to heal me right now, but I do need you to give me hope. Give me hope that a better life awaits, that the pain I’m currently feeling will soon dissipate and one day be turned into something beautiful. Give me hope that I will one day heal.”

January 10th, 2024: With incredible pain in my body, I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for a business trip, which was genuinely the last place I wanted to be and the last thing I wanted to do. My client at the time was the United Nations, and we were filming a shoot for a couple of days. On the first day that I arrived, I went to set for the pre-production meeting to discuss roles and responsibilities and to align on who’s doing what on the shoot days.

The task I was given was incredibly simple—to check off the shot list on an Excel spreadsheet after each take. Anyone else there could’ve done it…so why did they spend $3,000 for me to travel to Atlanta? Later that evening, I walked back to my hotel and starting laughing. Why the fuck am I here? I thought to myself. But then I prayed in my mind and said, “God, I don’t know why you brought me here, but I trust it’s for a reason, and I’m excited to find out what that reason is.”

January 11th 2024 AM: I woke up feeling sick, but proceeded with my morning routine to ground myself—coffee, journaling, my Joe Dispenza meditation. But this wasn’t like any other meditation I’ve ever experienced. Something remarkable happened. Within the time and space between my the vibration in heart, my current self and my future self, I saw (and felt) something extraordinary.

I saw a beautiful vision of me sitting in the audience at the Oscars, holding the hand of my lover beside me, eyes tearing up, and hearing “And the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay goes to…Karin Hadadan!” I then imagined myself walking up on that stage, in full awe and wonder, where I gave my acceptance speech, thanking God that it was through a prayer of hope that led me there. I then saw all past versions of me sitting in the audience, clapping with gratitude and pride, for where they brought me and where I arrived.

But it wasn’t just a visual—it was a somatic experience. My body was shaking. My heart was beating so fast. I started profusely crying. My body was saying yes.

When I got out of the meditation, my intuition quieted down and the voice of my self-doubt returned. I looked up and said, “God, what? What was that? Why did you show me that? I don’t need another dream! I just need hope! You know I can’t do that! Not like this, with this body! Why, God, why!!!” I was so confused. I was also heartbroken, because that version of me felt impossible to attain. But, I had a shoot to be at, so I dismissed what occurred, got ready and walked to the set.

As I sat in the studio, I started looking around. Something clicked. Wait…wait a minute. I’m on a film set. With a director. And a producer. Interesting.

I then found myself having a conversation with the freelance copywriter who wrote the commercial we were filming, where she proceeded to tell me that she was pitching a TV series that she wrote. “It’s something I’m really passionate about.” I took it in. What are the odds of that.

January 11th 2024 PM: My colleague invited me to a dinner with the full crew. I debated going, as I didn’t really know any of them, felt like shit and preferred to be in my pajamas eating Uber Eats, and frankly, didn’t feel confident that I could hold a conversation with people who had 10-15 years of experience on me. But, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and decided to go. God, show me where to go, what to do, who to speak to, what to say and to whom.

I sat next to the Director and Producer who proceeded to tell me that their production company didn’t just shoot commercials, but also did VFX work for Hollywood. Their roster? The Grand Budapest Hotel. Zoolander. A Real Pain. It was at that dinner where I confidently declared, “Wow, I’d love to hear more about that. I’m actually writing my first screenplay, so I’m taking this as a sign!” A little white lie or me speaking my destiny into existence?

As Coehlo wrote, When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

January 13th 2024: I’m now back in New Jersey. A shift in my heart. I pray to God for clarity. And then it hits me—he answered my prayer from a week prior, “Give me hope that a better life awaits, that the pain I’m currently feeling will soon dissipate and that one day I’d turn this into something beautiful. Give me hope that I will one day heal.” It clicked. This new dream would be the reason I would wake up each day. It would be the way in which I turn my pain into something beautiful. It will be the path that leads to my restoration, healing and wholeness.

But, self-doubt creeped in again.

Who the fuck am I to be a screenwriter? Sure, I love film. I always have. I watch a movie or a TV show every single night and have been since I was 16-years-old. And, I always watch them with subtitles because it’s what allows me to appreciate screenwriters and their words more. After I watch something, I go on a deep dive on Wikipedia to learn everything about it—who wrote it, who directed it, how it came to be, where it was shot, the names of all the actors and what other films they’ve played in. But—I had never read a screenplay. I have never written fiction. I have never developed a character, a plot or an arc. I don’t know anyone in film. I don’t know anything about the industry. I can write, sure. But a screenplay? That seems way beyond what I’m capable of.

January 15th, 2024: An LA-based lifestyle content creator I followed on TikTok (Emily, who I had been silently admiring via Instagram since I was in college) commented on one of my TikTok’s. I decided to message her, as I knew that she was also a writer and had produced a short film that I was eager to watch. She sent it to me and it was beautiful. She wanted to meet up the next time she was in NY or when I was in LA. Turns out, she’s a screenwriter writing her first book, and I’m an author writing my first screenplay…

January 21st, 2024: I got an email from my building management that a film was going to be filmed on my block for the next three weeks. I live in New Jersey. This isn’t normal.

So, everyday after work, I’d walk around my neighborhood in hopes of seeing something or someone. There were trucks everywhere. 111’s and 444’s on all of the license plates. My heart was about to burst. I felt giddy. Sure, it didn’t make sense. But I felt joy…and that is the marker from the soul that just knows.

A few days into it, guess who I see? Colleen fucking Hoover. Turns out, they were filming the apartment scenes in It Ends With Us in the building next to mine. Like…what?

Late January 2024: I’m walking to work one day and I randomly decide to go a different, longer route. I’m not sure why, but I felt a nudge to do so. I then stumbled upon a film set. Lights, camera, action. Trucks everywhere. Producers spanning the streets with their clipboard. Angel numbers on all of the license plates. An omen. Another sign.

This lead me to start thinking about it more seriously. What would I even write? What would the story be about? What is the plot? What am I supposed to do here? Why me? God, where are you guiding me? Self-doubt creeped in even further so naturally, I didn’t take any action yet. I wasn’t ready to.

February 2024: By this point, I had stumbled upon 3-4 more film sets while walking to work in Manhattan. And by stumble, I mean stumble. Like, a road was blocked off so I’d have to go on a different street. Or, midday I’d be in the mood for a matcha and go on walk and saw another film set. Shit like that.

February 22nd, 2024: Shonda Rhimes posted a passage from my book, Beauty in the Stillness, on her feed. Shonda fucking Rhimes! The producer and screenwriter of Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton and Scandal. Yup!

February 28th, 2024: I’m in a meeting with one of the co-founders of my advertising agency, who is also incredibly brilliant, creative, spiritual and successful. He lives in LA but was in town in NY. We were pitching to win the Chevrolet business and this was the first meeting I’ve ever been in with him, despite being super inspired by him since I joined the company 3 years prior. During the meeting, he proceeded to tell us that he was recently in Costa Rica and had dinner with Denzel Washington and Spike Lee, to which they shared a script with him that they wanted his feedback on.

Turns out, the co-founder of my company is connected to the film world. I clocked that shit hard. I also made myself known in that meeting—I spoke confidently, debating him about an idea. Despite being 20 years younger than him, I sensed that he respected me.

March 8th, 2024: Emily is in New York, so we planned to meet for coffee for the first time. She gave me advice, I gave her some. She said she’d send me some of her film scripts as a reference and I said I’d send her my book manuscripts. A new friend, both guiding each other towards their destinies. Ironically, it was around this time where I started To Be Magnetic and one of the principles is to find ‘Expanders’ as you work towards your manifestations, and that when you start living in alignment, the right people will walk into your life. Turns out, Emily was also a TBM-er. No coincidence that our energies attracted one another.

April 2nd, 2024: I went to McNally Jackson in SoHo and bought ‘A Creative Act: A Way of Being’ by Rick Rubin. I had seen it floating around social media for months, but knew I’d feel called to read it when the time was right. The time was then. His whole premise is that the purpose of the creative act is to awaken something within you first and then awaken something within the other person, and that the process of turning an idea into art is truly a spiritual experience. That ideas are always floating above us. We can all catch them, but it is the person that acts on it—who doesn’t let the fear of failure stop them—who is the chosen one to bring it to life. It also helped me see process, the hurdles and the brilliance in being a creative.

April 8th, 2024: I’m hospitalized for a panic attack. My health was the worst it had ever been. Chronic acne, bloating, fainting spells, chest pains, all of it. I didn’t know it was a panic attack at the time (I only realized it was after watching Inside Out 2 later that summer, lol). I genuinely thought that something was wrong with my heart. The rock bottom I was facing in January was nothing compared to this. This was another spiritual awakening in the making…but at the time, I felt broken. It wasn’t just that my body was tired, but that my soul was tired. Of fighting every fucking day. BUT, I had a dream inside of me. A dream of being a screenwriter. That was my hope. I trusted that everything was unfolding for my highest good, and I was right. A massive contraction led to my biggest expansion. I now look back on this time and feel incredibly grateful for all of it. I wrote about here and here if you want to dig deeper.

April 15th, 2024: Emily is New York again. We meet for coffee once more, now chatting deeper on all things creativity, love, life, expansion, the eclipse season and more. By this point, I hadn’t written anything on my screenplay. I only had a few ideas and narratives floating in my head but in full transparency, I had no clue on where to actually start.

I began doing what I could—researching about the industry, listening to podcasts and interviews with writers, directors and producers. Immersing myself in the whole world of film. And I loved it. I learned that the way my brain operates, the place in which I write and create from, is exactly similar to those of other artists in the film world. I felt very aligned with all of it—I saw myself in those folks—leading me to begin replacing my spiritual self-help podcasts and books with ones about creativity, storytelling and film. I also noticed myself watching film and TV differently—observing the opening scenes, noticing how the dialogue is expressed, the ways characters transform from the first ten minutes to the last. I also felt seen and less alone, after hearing about famous screenwriters and directors experiencing creative blocks, ruts or the inability to start.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

May 5th, 2024: I was craving an up level. I had started a note on my phone with random ideas, thoughts, lines and scenes, but still had little clue on what I was trying to write or what was itching to be poured out. I just knew that something was brewing inside of me. My health was slightly getting better, and I felt called to trust my body more than I ever had…so, I decided to do a 3-day water fast. And guess what happened? My body and mind were clear enough to fully receive. The idea was planted. I got clarity on the story I’d write. The name of the film. And that was when I began watering the seed I planted a few months prior.

May 28th, 2024: I had a trip planned for early June for my sister-in-laws bachelorette in Cabo. My original itinerary was to fly from New Jersey to Cabo on Thursday and then Cabo to LA on Sunday afternoon, and then take the redeye that Sunday evening from LA back to New Jersey. But the idea of that return flight felt exhausting and off. I had a nudge to move my return flight to Monday instead, and stay the night in LA at my sister-in-laws parent’s house. I switched my flight on a whim.

June 10th, 2024: Feeling whole and full of joy after a girls trip, I walked onto the JetBlue flight back to New Jersey around 2:30pm. I walked through the aisle towards my middle seat (it was all I was able to switch to without paying extra). I sat down, and noticed a young girl, around my age, sitting against the window, head down on her phone. Finally. Sitting next to someone cool for once and not an old sleeze, I thought to myself. My eyes then wandered to her phone screen, observing her posting a carousel on Instagram. After dissecting the image she was posting, I realized…wait a minute. Is that…Emily?

“Wait, what?! What are you doing here?!” we both laughed. What are the fucking odds of that! The nudge I felt to switch my flight made zero sense at the time, but in that moment, it clicked. It led me back to her, seated right beside her. On that flight, she was editing her draft of her book, to which I gave her advice. I was editing my screenplay on Pages. “Oh, girl, no. Don’t use that. Use WriterDuet. It’s a free website that does all the screenwriting formatting for you. It’ll be so much easier.” Emily was right. Writing became much easier after that point.

June 3rd, 2024: While deep in another meditative state in the early morning hours, my higher self told me to do two things that day:

1. “Message Drake Doremus on Instagram. Ask him to share his screenplays with you.” He is one of my favorite film directors, who happened to follow my Instagram back in 2021 after I posted about watching one of my favorite films by him, Endings, Beginnings. The nudge my 23-year-old self had, to tag him in my Instagram story, perhaps was a seed I had planted, without even realizing why. I decided to message him that day. He responded right away. He emailed me his scripts and said, “I hope these help you on your journey. Thank you for your words. Good luck and you got this:).” I laughed to myself. Well, that was easy.

2. The co-founder of my agency had given the commencement speech at his Alma Mater a week prior, and one of the other founders emailed a link of it to my whole agency. I decided to watch it, and was so glad I did, because it was all about resilience, following your heart, overcoming life’s greatest obstacles. I felt seen, heard and inspired. During my meditation, my higher self said, “Email him. Express what his speech meant to you.” I obeyed—I wrote a long email, from my heart, that expressed my gratitude for his vulnerable speech. I also asked for his address so I could send him copies of my first book. He responded immediately, expressed how much my email meant to him, and said he’d love to find time to chat. My higher self was right.

June 30th, 2024: I was ready to take the writing part more seriously. By this point, I had written a few scenes and jotted down plot lines and potential story arcs. I knew the name of the film, and made a Spotify playlist with the tracks I want to include in it. This kickstarted the process of me feeling the world that I was creating, to really live in it. It felt tangible—no longer was it just an idea in my mind but something I could see, touch, hear and feel.

July 1st, 2024: I spoke to my co-founder for an hour (virtually) about everything I geek out on—spirituality, creativity, resilience, faith, writing, health. Turns out, we had a lot more in common than I dared to fathom. I told him about the screenplay I was writing and mentioned that I’d love to share it with him once it’s ready. I also asked him for advice. “All I’d say is…write the truth, whatever that is for you. The truth is what sets you free,” he reminded me. I decided that I would write the truth, and only the truth.

July 7th, 2024: I was out to lunch for my father’s birthday near the Flatiron District. As my family and I walked through the streets of Manhattan, bellies and hearts full, my brother spotted someone. “Holy shit. That’s Spike Lee!” I never ask for a picture with a celebrity, but for some reason I did this time. Remember how the co-founder of my agency was in Costa Rica with Spike Lee months prior? Yeah. Another moment of ‘what the fuck’.

July 15th, 2024: I’m lounging at my pool and started talking to one of my neighbors, who I knew worked in production. I just didn’t know for what. Turns out, he also works in the Hollywood world. “Look, I can get you in the room. I can bring you to the right folks. But then, you have to pitch and sell yourself. Which I know you can do. Just let me know when you’re ready.” Another green light.

July 27th 2024: We won the Chevrolet pitch. I was officially working on the business, in the process of securing a director for our first commercial for them. We landed on Lance Acord. I immediately googled him. Turns out, he was the Director of Photography on one of my favorite films, Lost In Translation, and worked with Spike Jonze (my dream Director) across all of his projects before Lance became a Director himself. I have both ‘HER’ and ‘Lost In Translation’ movie posters in my living room. It was the first artwork I bought when I moved in back in 2022. I’m not sure why. But I did. Weird.

August 5th, 2024: I’m in a meeting with my Executive Producer talking about Lance’s director treatment. I’m sitting at my kitchen island whilst in the meeting, camera on, with both of the movie posters behind me. I receive this random message from my producer, who took a screenshot of the side of my head while we were in the meeting…

I told her about the film I was writing and that one day, I’d love to pick her brain as I don’t know anything about how to get it out there. She said she’d love to help when the time comes.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

August 2024: By this point, I had written about 60 pages. The story was getting clearer, the plot started to make sense. But it was a lot of stop and go. I was passionate about the idea, I was energized, I had all of the signs…but part of me felt defeated because I had never experienced a creative block. It has always flowed for me. I’ve never had a stop-and-go experience when it comes to my writing. So, I began to self-doubt again. Maybe I’m not good enough for this. Maybe this is all delusional. Maybe this is going to be my biggest failure. What is meant for you with flow, and since this isn’t flowing…what if this isn’t meant for me? But then I’d notice myself out and about, getting a wave of inspiration and jotting it down on my notes app. Or listening to a song and adding it to my Spotify playlist. Or being in a conversation and writing down what the other person said as a potential line. I was still ‘working’ on it, even though I wasn’t actually writing. Maybe I’m just experiencing a new way of birthing art, I consoled myself.

September 14th, 2024: My brother’s wedding day in LA! A beautiful day awaiting for me. But not in the way that I thought. We took our family pictures at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and when it was time for my brother to take his first look photos with his now wife, my dad and I decided that we didn’t want to just stay in the hotel room for the next few hours until the ceremony. So, we decided to walk around the hotel.

It was the weekend of the Emmy’s, so the hotel was flooded with all types of people. I wrote a whole post about this experience here, but long-story short, my father randomly started talking to a stranger…who turned out to be an Emmy-Award winning Executive Producer, whose sister-in-law lives a few streets away from my parent’s house in suburban New Jersey. Another confirmation that I’m on the right path and exactly where I need to be, I thought to myself.

October 2024: I began writing more. I had learned more about the industry. I fell in love with the story I was writing. I loved the words I was writing. But, it was still a lot of stop and go.

November 2024: I was in a creative rut. Nothing was coming out. My screenplay document was a mess. I needed to edit it and clean it up and tidy it down and move things around, but that felt daunting. I let it gather dust. I didn’t touch it for weeks. But, I kept thinking about it. Every day. It was haunting me. I visualized that same Oscars moment every morning in my meditations just to remind myself of what I was working towards, but even then, I wasn’t acting on it.

December 2024: I went inwards. I focused on my belief system rather than the art itself, primarily via To Be Magnetic, to the point where I paused all creative output. Reconnecting with my authenticity—fearlessness, creative, spiritual, loving. I took a break. A much needed one. I went inwards, to heal the limiting beliefs that were holding me back, to reconnect with my authentic self, to get clarity on what the fuck I really wanted to do with my life. I spiraled a lot during this month—questioning what my gifts really are, what my soul came here to do, how I’d ever make substantial money doing what I love. By this point, I assumed that the screenplay was a fake dream. Something my delusional mind made up and was no where near what my soul’s mission was.

January 13th, 2025: I was out to dinner in Manhattan with a childhood friend. A dinner I almost cancelled on. As I walked out of the crowded restaurant, I felt a nudge to look back, and there he was. The Emmy-Award winning Executive Producer sitting in the back corner with his family. The one I had met and spoke to four months prior at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The one who lives in LA, not New York. Out of 17,000 restaurants in Manhattan, we happened to be at the same one, at the same time. I took this as yet another sign to maintain faith, to keep going, to not give up. Despite not having written in months, this pushed me forward.

January 29th, 2025: Another meditation where my higher self told me to message the Executive Producer from work. “It’s time,” she said. So, I did. I messaged her and explained how I had been working on my screenplay for the past few months and almost had something pretty solid (that was a lie). All I asked was to pick her brain on what makes a screenplay great and getting it out there—anything to keep in mind, people to maybe reach out to, etc. She responded immediately and said, “I'd love to intro you to my fiancé who will be way, way more knowledgeable than me. He sold a few screenplays in the early days of his career.” This is the same fiancé who’s friends with the Costume Designer on my favorite Spike Jonze movie, HER.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

January 31st, 2025: She looped me into an email thread with her fiancé. He responded immediately. I sent him a long ass email explaining what I’m up to. He said passion is #1, which it seems I have, and asked me to send my rough draft. I then freaked the fuck out…because the draft I had was NOT good. It was genuinely all over the place because when I’d write, I’d just write scene by scene versus writing the story in chronological order. The characters weren’t developed. The scenes weren’t good. It was definitely not ready to be shared with anyone, especially someone of his caliber. All I was hoping for was a conversation, not someone to read my shitty draft yet! However, I took this as another green light. This was an invitation. For months, I saw this mountain in front of me, to the point where I halted any action. But this man’s email was the exact push I needed—to just do the thing I don’t want to do to get to where I want to get to. That Monday, I discovered that the mountain I was so afraid of was simply an illusion because within four hours, I cleaned up my WIP screenplay, got it into a beautiful place, and sent it over to him.

My email was long. Very long. I’ve never pitched a screenplay, therefore I didn’t know what to write to him, so I wrote a 4 paragraph synopsis on the story. Within 20 minutes of me sending me that email, he immediately gave me advice and said, “The first rule I can teach you is, you won’t have the opportunity to explain your script at length…” which was exactly what I asked for. Guidance. It was his feedback that helped me figure out what my 1-2 sentence elevator pitch could be. A week later, I discovered what it was. It hasn’t changed since.

February 2025: I began writing more. The story was getting tighter. The characters were intricate and complex and remarkable. I fell in love with everything I was writing. I was starting to see the full picture.

February 15, 2025: Another health flare up that brought all of my subconscious fears back to the surface, ones I thought I had already surpassed. While at CIVANA Wellness Resort in Arizona, I participated in an Intention Burning Ceremony where we wrote down what we wanted to release and what we wanted to receive. We then did a meditation to visualize us letting go of what no longer served us and receiving what we wanted to call in. I imagined myself letting go of all fears and stories regarding my health, ultimately creating space to receive childlike joy, freedom and love. I realized, that on the other side of my fears, was the life I wanted to live. I quantum leaped in that moment, energetically speaking.

February 19th, 2025: I made a promise to myself that rather than using my time and energy to “heal,” I would use it to create. The less energy I gave towards my health, the more I had to finish this story. From that point on, the words began FLOWING out of me. I mean—waking up and writing lines in my head, sitting on the train and thinking of new scenes, walking to work and ideating on Easter eggs to infuse throughout the story, coming home to write for two hours, going to bed thinking about doing it all over again the next day. Ironically, this film was replacing all of my fear-based health thoughts with love, joy and creativity…refer back to my original prayer to God back in January 2024, and you’ll understand the significance of this.

March 14th, 2025: The story was almost there. I was just stuck on two characters and what their plot lines would lead to. I spent a few nights at my parent’s house to reconnect and slow down. One evening, I decided to go on a long walk without my AirPods. I simply wanted to listen to nature and my own voice. I then felt a nudge to record a Voice Memo of me brainstorming out loud, riffing and ideating and speaking the story into existence. And I did, for ten minutes. It was within that Voice Memo where I finalized the two plot lines I was struggling on, wrote the ending of the film, and knew exactly how to bring it all together. I walked back home and wrote 25 pages that night.

March 21st, 2025: That entire week, I was writing non-stop. It was pouring out of me, unable to be contained, my fingers flying across my keyboard with passion, love, joy, amazement, freedom. I finished writing it on a 3pm on a Friday, with tears flowing down my face for reasons I can’t yet fully articulate. Going back to my original prayer—God, please heal me—this was the journey that led me to that. It was through writing this screenplay (it’s based on my life), that my soul truly healed. Because I was able to write about the parts of my story that once held so much shame, that I’ve never written or spoken about, the words living inside of me that needed an external home to live in. I posted this TikTok about it, where you can see the light and love radiating through my eyes.

April 1st, 2025: My higher self gave me another instruction during my morning meditation. “Send it to the co-founder,” she said. That day, I wrote a beautiful email to him—pitching him the idea in 1-2 sentences, the one that my producer’s fiancé helped me arrive at—and asked if he’d be open to reading it. He replied a few days later stating, “This sounds exciting and I’d love to talk more about it. I really like the concept and think your insight would speak to millions of people.” He also expressed that he was reading my book and loved it. I sent the final screenplay over to him. I prayed to God and said, I give it up to you. I never got a response back.

April 8th, 2025: On a random Tuesday, I felt a nudge to sit in the lobby of my office on one of the couches rather than at my desk. After an hour of working, I saw the co-founder walk by in a hurry. I didn’t even know he was in New York. Frankly, I had been itching to hear from him, waiting and hoping. But I reminded myself of Divine Timing and knew that God had a plan far greater than mine. As he was rushing towards another meeting, he paused and said, “I read the screenplay. I loved it. I can’t wait to talk about it.” I was very moved and briefly expressed my gratitude as he kept walking.

That’s where I’m at so far…but a preview of what’s to come….

Oscars 2027: And the Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay goes to…Karin Hadadan, for Walking Each Other Home!

(kidding, but not really)

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“Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything learned along the way. It does this not because it’s evil, but so we can master the lessons we learned.” — Paolo Coehlo

Part of the reason why I wanted to write this timeline and recap of events was for myself. Because the truth is, despite all of this magic, despite all of these signs and synchronicities and people that have come into my life, despite all of the whispers God has sent to me and the path he has led me on, and the mere fact that I fucking did the thing—I WROTE A SCREENPLAY!!!—the voice of self-doubt is still present.

However, I have come to terms with the fact that it always will be. The ego will always have a say. Doubt will always creep in. But it’s what you do—or don’t do—with it that counts.

I defied it. Everyday for the past year I defied that voice that said, “You’re not good enough. It’s way out of your league. You’re not creative like that. It’s too hard. It’ll never work out.”

Instead, I said YES. I said yes to the dream inside of me, to what my heart was whispering. Because in retrospect, all of this does make sense. I’m a writer. I always have been. I love film. Always have. I love cinematography and photography and music and emotions and character development and personal transformation and bringing ideas to life and what started as a seed is now 140 pages of beautiful words that is the story of my life, the people within it, and the universal human insight that is exactly what I’ve been writing about (unknowingly) for my entire adult life.

I said yes. God said, “Okay, let’s go!” and took me on this wonderful adventure.

The magic too, is that I didn’t ask God for any outcome. I didn’t pray and ask him, “I want to win an Oscar” — rather, I prayed to Him to show me what was already there. What was in front of me. Where to go so that I can feel my dream in my reality. I prayed for guidance, support and clarity, allowing me to seize what was within my reality that I previously might’ve overlooked or not taken advantage of.

I also believe that when God is working on something very specific in your life that feels far greater than you, your soul picks up on it, but your mind can’t yet grasp it. It doesn’t logically make sense, but your heart can’t shake it off. There’s something there.

It is within these moments where God felt silent. Yet in truth, he was simply whispering. He was giving me divine breadcrumbs to keep me going. All of those green lights came right after I was doubting myself, allowing each new experience to provide a bit more fuel, to focus on the present moment and the step in front of me, rather than the destination.

I also now know that God didn’t reveal the full picture to me because He knows me that well. God knows I’m an overthinking, self-doubt queen. Had I seen the full picture at the start—the journey that led me to where I now am— I would’ve analyzed the whole thing, self-sabotaged it or fully denied it because my soul and character a year ago didn’t have the belief system to hold it.

In my book The Unlimited Power Within You, I wrote a line that summarizes the point of all of this: “It’s not just about fulfilling the dream, its about becoming the type of person who can fulfill it.”

When I look in the mirror today, I see a whole new Karin. There is a light inside of my eyes that was reignited by following this calling. The level of self-trust I now have, combined with my faith in God, is astronomically higher than it was before all of this. The fact that I have taken myself out of the creative boxes I placed myself in has led me to believe that I can do anything. That my heart can be trust. That I truly am limitless.

But, the story isn’t over yet. This is just the beginning. I will continue to document this journey, so stay tuned.

xx Karin

PS: I'd love to hear your thoughts about this piece. Did this shift anything for you? Does my experience feel similar to yours? What did you learn after reading this? Let me know in the comments!

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