Summer Chronicles
Happy almost finished summer, sinners! Is it me, or was this one awesome summer? I don’t even mean in terms of having the best vacation ever, I just feel everyone I know did exactly what they were destined to do. Whether it was riding the waves of some exotic location, or staying put, there was simply some clarity in this summer. Heck, even The Aniston got married, and you don’t mess with The Aniston and her ring finger.
I had a great summer! I feel like a bit of a cheater talking about summers; I live in California, when is it not summer? Ah yes, those 26 days in January, right! Apologies.
Even though my summer was eye-opening & pleasurable, I feel a bit terrible. I’ve been a shit poster recently. I haven’t written much. I do get all your emails and I do appreciate them all, happy you guys like this little online space of mine. I even appreciate all those passive-aggressive emails ordering me to write, or to write more, or giving me subjects on what to write. They brighten up my day, truly.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you a tale of a thousand excuses, I’ll be honest. I just couldn’t write sensibly. My life has turned into a whirlwind these last 3 - 4 weeks, and I was just too overwhelmed. This website is a space I created to inspire people (and myself in the process), and I’m not a person who just sits down to type up a post. I need to live what I write. I get consumed in every subject, like an actor who gets ready to perform; I need to literally be in the character, or in my case in the subject, for days, to get it out of me the way I want it to sound. I’d like to think that’s the reason many of you love my blog because I live what I write and I’m honest with you. Relating to each other is one of the most important things in life, in my opinion. It’s what makes us feel like we aren’t the only ones, and draw inspiration from one another.
This summer, it’s not that I didn’t have subjects I wanted to share with you, it’s exactly the opposite. I had too many subjects. Two HUGE occasions happened in my life this August; one was private, one was professional, and I wasn’t at liberty to share any of it publicly at that moment. I still can’t talk about it in detail, but I wanted to share with you what these two things taught me, before the Fall swallows you up, before you run away into future experiences, before you start adding + subtracting your summer, maybe feeling bad about some things you didn’t do, or some places you didn’t visit, or men that made you feel less than you deserve.
I want to tell you that sometimes you don’t need to run to do things, see things, get things, or meet people; sometimes you just have to stay where you are. Sit for a minute, think, stay, persevere. And let what needs you find you!
My summer started a bit shaky. I was supposed to go back home finally, and enjoy summer in Europe; I wanted to see my family, and some important people in my life; I had it all planned. I was supposed to bring some of my American friends to my birthplace this summer, and also meet all my friends around the world who come every summer, and then boom. Change of plans! I got a job proposition, at exactly the time, out of the whole year, when I was about to leave. I was angry, I really needed to see some people in Europe this summer, I needed a break from the machinery that is Los Angeles, I just needed to go. But the job opportunity that I got offered was way too big to take the risk, and not be back in time. I canceled my trip, I stayed, I endured.
A few years back, I would never do that. I would never sacrifice anything for something bigger, I would think I could manage both, I’d try to run and trip all over my feet trying to be everywhere at the same time, and usually, I would lose at the end. This year I finally grew up and decided to suffer a bit for a greater goal. As I decided that, as my heart was set on staying; the things and the people I wanted to see this summer came to me. LITERALLY.
People underestimate patience. People who never do or achieve anything in life are those who want things right now, next week, next month. Do we even realize how hard people who achieved big things waited to get there? I often didn’t. It’s not a year or two, it’s decades of work, aligning, moment, and preparation. I deliberately excluded luck from the previous sentence. You can beat luck if you persevere. Time and perseverance beats luck. Put money on it.
A year ago I had a conversation with a friend about my brand and told her I also wanted to spread my wings (and skills) into something more than just designing accessories and apparel. I told her I wanted to be involved with a company that creates cultural trends, social trends, social commentary, and storytelling through merchandise. I just blurted out: “I really want to work as this position, to do that job, for this actor/singer”. She looked at me funny, asking how am I that specific on all three parts and how the hell I know even the person I wanted to work for?
I’ve done some research, girlfriend. I’m a master researcher, no one can beat me in that department, it’s borderline mental, the level of research I could do on a daily basis, and the amount of details I can store in my mind. Having researched him, and knowing what he does and the companies he holds I just came up with this job description I would like to do in one of his companies that no one even thought could be a job, it was just so random what I have said.
I had some connections around him and she asked me if I wanted to contact his agents and send a resume, and I said – “I can’t even verbalize what the job is, how can I ask for it”? So I said, no, and decided to put the idea in the vault and have it on stand-by until it makes sense.
Until it makes sense to the universe, to me it made sense right then and there.
Then, life swallowed me a bit. I’ve done other things, never fully forgot about it, but wasn’t intensively thinking about it. And this famous August, due to a mindblowing set of circumstances that not even Woody could put down on paper, I got a call from a guy pretty big in the apparel business I knew, telling me that actor/singer is opening a lifestyle brand and he needs a designer, a coder, a graphic, a writer; we don’t have a name Miranda but he needs someone to run merch, prints and a website. Also, that needs to be a person who knows everything about him, I need a person who has all those skills and is also an expert on him and I don’t know anyone in this town who is all that - but you.
What?
WHAT.
I get offered exactly the job I imagined, no, a job I INVENTED that day, chatting with my friend, a year and something ago. A job I could not even verbalize at that point, and it just appeared and got defined, right before my eyes and and fell in my lap.
Setting things in motion.
Patience.
Seeing something so clear you can almost feel it, touch it; think about it every day, be on a mission, let people laugh at you, sacrifice your summers, sacrifice your relationships if people don’t get your mission, and wait.
Just wait.
It’s in – not waiting – that we fail. The dream is at the end of the line, but we sacrifice coming to it by being distracted with temporary pleasures.
I finally decided to put my temporary pleasures on hold and let them be my reward WHEN I achieve my dream, and not prevent me from it. And the message I got back was - yes woman. You got it.
Sometimes we need not be in constant motion, but stand in one place, however not preferable that place might be at times; stand still, look around you, listen, and wait for your dream to find you.
