Tina Laura Hittenberger

“Approach life like it’s a buffet”

You can try some of this, and you can try some of that, and if you don't like that, that's cool. It can still stay on the buffet, but you can totally love this thing.

(Excerpt from an interview with Lauren Selman, Producer in the Entertainment Industry, Entrepreneur, Proud Daughter, Lifelong Athlete, and Lover of Life & Travel)
California, USA

I am deeply, profoundly connected to my mother. I talk to her all the time and when I’m not, I feel like she's still with me. I’m so like my mother. She is someone who has really embraced the beauty of life. And growing up, she had different careers and she had different interests, and I always saw her as this Renaissance woman who if she didn't know how to do something, she'd learn how to do it. Mom always surrounded herself with extraordinary people. I remember growing up, she had her book club, she had a women's club, she had all of these communities around her and it was like she was a magnet to community. I think that instilled in me a deep reverence and value for community, sisterhood, and friendship. I don't think I know anyone in this world who is as connected to people as my mother. I think that's one of the greatest gifts she's given me that I've carried into how I approach life.

As a producer of shows or films, one of my joys is using the power of collaboration to give people a unique experience or bring someone’s vision to life. I definitely got this ability from my mother who by the way, I was already helping with her events when I was 7 years old. I thrive in being part of a team and having teamwork. One of my proud moments was riding my bicycle across the United States at age 19, I did this with over 30 students. We started in Connecticut and arrived in California 63 days later. That was teamwork. Everything I do in life, whether it's putting on a show, starting a company, or a sport I’ve taken on is an opportunity to create a team and we work together to accomplish our goal.

Another thing I love about my mother is watching her constantly reinventing herself. She's not afraid to reinvent herself. When I was a kid, my mother was on the National Ski Patrol. That's so badass and awesome. And then she worked for a tech startup and then she was an admissions director and now she's in real estate. She's not afraid to take risks and redefine herself at every stage of her life. She studied art in college and did all her 10,000 careers. And now she's coming back to her roots as an artist creating beautiful work again.

My mother is a well of advice, insight and wisdom so I turn to her all the time for everything. And something that I've carried with me is her advice “to approach life like a buffet”. She said, “You can try some of this, and you can try some of that, and if you don't like that, that's cool. It can still stay on the buffet, but you can totally love this thing.” And I just love that approach, and I think it's really rolled into how I approach life. I consider myself this multidisciplinary ever curious person. Some people might say I'm all over the place but from my perspective, it's this buffet of life that I love so much that I get to taste all the flavors of. And with that, she is in my being all the time. She is an inspiration for how to live life to its fullest. And so for that, I give her the deepest gratitude and thanks.

One other thing I absolutely love about my mother is her sense of adventure and her love of travel. I have a brother and we all love to travel. We love exploring. I've been to over 40 countries. I'm so grateful, so privileged to have that desire and I've made a pledge to go to a different country a year. The apple does not fall far from the tree. No coincidence that my first job out of college was with a travel company leading tours and it was for the travel company that my mother took me on when I was a child. Travel gives me perspective. I get new insight, I get deep humility. I get a sense that the world is not just my world, it's our world. And I get the profound opportunity to immerse myself in different places. Mom and I created a travel fund, a bank account specifically dedicated to mother daughter travel. We put money into it. As we both continue to get older, I hope to continue to explore the world with her because she's one of the best travel buddies to have.

One other brilliant piece of advice my mom gave me about travel and dating, “take them somewhere cold and travel with them because you'll understand how they operate under stress and how they operate not being at home.” My fiancee passed with flying colors.