OMG, it has been 5 years! 5 YEARS! I look back and think about everything I have been through. The challenges, the things I conquered, the struggles, all the happiness, and the personal growth NYC brought me. February 15th, 2016 I arrived at JFK full of hope, dreams, and scared as hell. People ask me how I made it in the fashion industry, how I started and the steps I took to be where I am today, so I decided to share with you all my experience building a career in fashion and being an immigrant in the US. And, yes, I know 5 years is not the biggest amount of time, but damn, these kids know how to live life and build experience nowadays…
I have mentioned a couple of times (probably in every post I talked about myself) that I grew up on a farm, I come from a traditional kind of family, my family has been in business for 3 generations, but I decided to conquer a career on my own and was always a city girl, blablabla. But one of the things that I do not tell people about it is how hard it was and still is to have my family approving my career. Like a privileged kid, I got to choose what I wanted to do and attend the best fashion school, but that does not mean my parents always approved me trying to build a career in the fashion industry. The opposite. For my parents, studying fashion I would become a seamstress and spend the day sewing clothes.
My parents always made clear that they wanted me to become a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, or an architect. I spent my entire 5 years of fashion school with my mother saying “this is so useless. You are going to school for something that does not even make you study. After paying for the best schools you decide to go to college for something that will make you forget how to study”. Her words… After finishing fashion school, my parents gave me an ultimatum “you can start college again and study something serious this time or go traveling for a bit and see how you fit in this industry you decided to be in”. I obviously decided to travel, but I originally wanted to move to Argentina. Close to home, I could drive to my parents and already spend a summer in Buenos Aires studying fashion at Palermo University. It was a perfect idea. But then my parents decided to export me to NYC.
When I first arrived in NYC, February 15th, 2016, I was a completely different person. Full of hope and dreams, but also scared as hell, shy, entitled to my Brazilian life, and a lazy ass who just wanted to party and enjoy NYC - but can you blame me? LOL! I came to New York as an exchange student. I first came here to stay 6 months studying English - “studying English” you know (partying 24/7 and getting to know NYC). After 6 months my mother decided that I could either go back to Brazil, go back to college and work in the family business, or I could stay in New York, get a job and become an adult (lol, but for real).
Even though I grew up on a farm, missed nature and my horse, I was always a city girl. I always loved fashion, I always loved partying, and always lived a bohemian lifestyle. I grew up with people watching me and entitling me because of my family, and that was always an issue for my parents who tried to keep the family image untouched. Poor mom and dad… I always remember one party night (I was 14 years old) in which I went wild and got up on the stage to dance with the brand (nobody else was doing that, it was just me, the band, and people on the front roll with their cameras…). The good (or bad) part is that the band decided to play along, did not kick me out of the stage and they all took their shirts off (I took their shirts off).
So I guess you have a good idea of how into the city lifestyle I was. 6 months in NYC was enough for me to fall in love with this city and decide to stay, even though I would have to get a job and learn what paying taxes means. To be honest with you, I was always very settled and liked living in my comfort zone. Probably because I never had to worry about my career and future and probably the main reason why I am not where I want to be right now. I always had to be poked to move forward and get things done. That is why after those first 6 months in new york I did not have another choice but to get a job. I also decided to go back to college, but for business management which is the only degree my mother is proud of and it is the only college degree she tells her friend about it.
As I mentioned in my previous posts, my first job in the US was in retail. I learned a lot and I am grateful for the opportunity, but I hated it. And, even hating it, I lasted there for almost a year. Why? Because I was in my comfort zone, because I was worried about leaving that job and not finding anything else better, because I needed to pay bills and because I was spending too much time laying in my bed, crying and feeling bad that I had no one here, no network and was impossible for me to get a job in fashion - to be honest, back on those days I did not even know how to look for a job. I was introduced to LinkedIn in 2018, do not judge me!
I feel like I push myself a little too hard for things that I know are not worth it. That is exactly what happened when I was working in retail. I pushed until the day I was miserable and hated what I was doing. Obviously, when I quit, I saw myself in the same situation of “I need a new job”. So in about 4 days after quitting my retail job, I started working as a hostess in a bar. It helped at the moment and I also learned a lot, but to be honest I felt even more miserable. I saw myself in the situation where I was doing something completely different than the reason why I moved to NYC. But again, being too settled, living in my comfort zone, and partying too hard, I lasted at the job for about 6 months.
The moment I decided to make a change was during the holidays in 2017, when I went to Brazil to see my family. My father, with all his patience, called me and said that he was proud of me, the growth NYC life brought me, and the fact that I was doing everything on my own, but he had to kick my butt and remind me to stay focused on my career. That was the turning point! When I came back to New York after that trip, I came with a completely different focus and an open mind. I even started a LinkedIn account (lol, but for real).
As cheesy as this may sound when you give to the universe the energy you would like to receive, the universe tends to help you and work in your favor. Life is all about network and how open you are to meet new people, but when you focus on gratitude and what you want, things tend to happen. The moment I decided to practice gratitude, stay focused on what I came here for, started living to the standards I want to build for my future, and stand up for myself, that was when things started to happen and everything led me here. This story continues…
*the history is too long and, to share every necessary detail without boring you guys or just writing a book, I have to break this post in 2!
I hope you stick around for part 2.
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