Baby, You Were Born To Create

When you discover your purpose, it truly is a blessing. You can begin to focus on what you want to achieve in life, the steps you need to take to get there, all that. It's an electric shock that pierces your skin and energizes your heart. At least that's how I felt when I discovered I was born to create.

My second semester at Howard, I changed my major to Accounting because I was great at math and was thinking 'job security'. 18-years is such a young age to actually have an idea of who you are where you see yourself going (for me, anyway.) I wasn't making decisions based on what I truly wanted but more so for my family's expectations of me being an excelling businesswoman.

Semester five (5) was when I realized I wasn't happy with my decision and wanted to change it. I started doing things that made me happy like modeling for aspiring fashion designers in the DC Metropolitan area and working with various photographers to build my portfolio. Modeling was the highlight of my third year at Howard. I loved staging my own shots, picking the locations, and creating ideas to portray in the image. The creative juices would flow and I saw it as an outlet of psychological freedom. 

Semester eight (8) was when I realized I'm going to change my direction. I applied to London College of Fashion for their Postgraduate program in Fashion Buying & Merchandising. Being accepted into the institution was the greatest graduation gift I could have received. I learned so much about myself during my London era; who I wanted to be, where I saw myself going in life, and how I was going to get there. One of my favorite memories at LCF was when I had the opportunity to design my own swimwear range based on market and trend analysis. 

It has been a year since I've finished school and I now reside in Brooklyn, NY. As a full-time job hunter, it is very easy to get discouraged, fall into a depressed state, and become overwhelmed. I occasionally ask myself if I made the right decisions in life, should I have stuck to Accounting, should I have interned more, should I just give up on chasing my dreams of becoming a Creative Director.

Then I think about the satisfaction I received when I saw the produced images of my shoots with photographers in DC, the confidence developed after I completed my first creative project, My Images Dope, my 9 digital designed swimwear pieces on Adobe Photoshop, and my persistence on giving AMANDALUXE the attention it deserves. And I say to myself, "Baby, you were born to create."

I know I have a long road ahead of me and I'm not sure what the future holds. It frightens and exhilarates me at the same time . My heart races, excitement kicks in, and I taste victory. At least that's what I feel since I discovered I was born to create.

Stay tuned for greatness.

Thanks for reading,

Amanda.