I always believed that meeting other designers is key to my happiness as a designer, and artist as well. Sharing ideas with design colleagues and friends has been very important to me in my path.
I've also found that having a mentor really makes the journey so much more delightful. A couple of times I just simply asked my boss creative directors, and everyone always said "yes".
This, in turn, open up their world to me. I likewise, I've mentored many designers, most recently someone who started her journey as a creative lead with a team, and it was a lot of fun, still is.
Great story!