Check Out Randy Mansour’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Randy Mansour.

Hi Randy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My name is Randy Mansour. I was born in Clearwater, Florida to two loving parents who came here from Lebanon after the civil war. I grew up alongside the birth of the internet and spent a lot of my time exploring that frontier. To be frank, I was a bit of a loser. But I liked to learn, and that was the place to do it. I developed a very early affinity for technology and my mom likes to brag that I knew how to use a computer before I knew how to speak. Which was impressive for the time, because there used to be a day and age where engaging with technology consisted of some friction. It was hard to use. Despite my propensity for nerdy things, I was always a bit of a romantic. I felt things deeply from a very young age, and that didn’t come into play until I was older. In high school, I fell in love with a girl who loved movies and shooting photos on her 35mm camera. On our first date, she let me try taking some pictures myself, and it was then that I found my true love. (Not her, sorry.) One fateful retail therapy trip to the thrift store and I came across my trusty own 35mm SLR. A Minolta XG-9. My hunger for knowledge led me down a deep rabbit hole into the inner workings of this magical machine. I read, and read, and read. Cameras became a passion of mine. Now that pivotal girlfriend also led me to the world of capital F Film. Having spent most of my high school career in the arts (pottery, sculpture), but not wanting to live the life of a starving artist, I opted to pursue my education in Film at Georgia State University. Lucky for me, my parents didn’t mind. Film ended up consuming me. It was the intersection of all of the things I loved. There was math, physics, writing, artistry. All of these separate, nerdy hobbies of mine kind of made me a powerhouse. Or so I believed. After getting my Masters in the Spring of 2020 (which, if you remember, was not the most opportune time to graduate with a degree in the arts), I meandered and lazed my days. But during this time, I inherited my father’s record collection. Thus began a new obsession for me. Now to go back in time for just a moment, in the 3rd grade, we were asked to do a year long project report on a topic of our choosing from a long list. I picked mine almost immediately. Japan. I became engrossed in the culture and it was a hyperfixation of mine. It was a long lasting undercurrent for me, and this leads up back to where we were because my record collection habits quickly turned to collecting Japanese records of music I liked. It was expensive to import, but it was a start into a hobby that continues 10 years later. I had a brief stint in the film industry that strained me, (not a fan of networking) and I grew disillusioned and jaded fairly quickly. I was seeking the art in it. I eventually began working on my own private projects, picking up my Minolta XG-9 again, and somehow my record collection has resulted in my side hobby as a DJ from time to time. After rediscovering my love for Japanese culture, I have been studying the language for 3 years now, and a month-long trip across Japan this past year cracked me down the center. Now, I’m once again getting a Master’s degree from Georgia State University in Teaching English as a Second Language with hopes of becoming an English teacher in a University in Japan. To put it briefly.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No life that leads up to a career change and a desire to start anew in a different country is a life without struggles. The road to becoming who I am was not simply about my hobbies and career choices. It was also about my discovery of self. I’m a first generation Lebanese Lesbian Transwoman. I don’t need to begin explaining the struggles that someone with my laundry list of identity faces. I’ve faced scrutiny at every turn and it’s shaped into a life that might look to some like a bulldozer. There was a long line that was cast for me and I’ve been pulled by it since I was young, and if you didn’t stand aside and watch, you were something in the way. And nothing stands in the way of a bulldozer.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a filmmaker, writer, photographer, DJ, and aspirant teacher. I’m not proud of any one particular thing, but maybe of all things. My wealth of knowledge is something I’m not humble about. I try to learn every day, and for creatives, that means learning about ourselves, how we connect with others and the world around us. It’s never ending. As far as the practical skills go, my late-father instilled in me the deep understanding that, “If something needs to be done and you don’t know how to do it, you can learn how to do it.” And at first I thought that used to make him stubborn. And it did, but I now realize that I am my father’s daughter, and so I’m stubborn, too. There’s nothing I can’t learn how to do. And that gift from my father is what I’m most proud of.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I’m a gambling woman. Not in an addiction sense, don’t worry. I just know that no great change can happen without great investment. In looking at the life I’ve built for myself here: my degrees, my friends, my network, my family, my home, my safety net; the greatest risk I’m taking is the belief that there is something on the other corner of the globe that is calling to me, and that thing will be worth putting everything aside for.

Contact Info:

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