"She took the leap & built her wings on the way down"

I finally started my dream job. I feel like I have been waiting for this moment my entire life. All of my hard work, all of my life, has accumulated to this point. This is what everyone works for; this is what everyone wants. We go to school for 17 years (I personally went for 19 since I started school when I was three years old attending two different pre-ks because I wanted to go to school so badly)- and this is it. THIS IS IT! This is the start of my life.

So far everything has been such a whirl wind I have not even had time to stop and catch my breath. My first day was filled with meetings with the “big wigs,” as they called them in the offices, on conference calls from New York and live meetings with other very important people, all of which I found extremely inspiring; especially the fact that my mentor, my store manager and the vice president of the entire district are all powerful women! Everyone has been so incredibly welcoming, I feel like I’m walking into a giant family.

Then on my second day of the job they sent me off two hours away to a huge rally celebrating the stores and preparing for the holiday season. I met executives from stores all over the south at a day filled with cheers (I literally had to get onstage and do a cheer…), charities (everyone donated money to wear jeans instead of business wear and we rose over $500 for United Way) and many many inspiring messages. It almost made me feel like I was back home with my sorority sisters, who I miss dearly, tons of energy doing cheers and skits and philanthropies.

I am living my dream, and as much as I love it, it is absolutely terrifying. I’m so scared of screwing things up, after I have come so far. For a girl who is use to rolling out of bed, putting on running shorts and pulling her hair into a ponytail to go work at a gym, waking up hours before work to make myself look presentable and be the fashion-forward charismatic girl I want to be, is incredibly exhausting.

The beloved Carrie Bradshaw said it best with “I will never be the woman with the perfect hair, who can wear white and not spill on it.” That fits me to a T. I just hope I can keep up the image I have started and do not get too lazy.

I am excited to get to the point where I can finally feel like I am no longer being interviewed with every action and interaction, and that I actually deserve to be there. I think that is when I will really start to find myself and truly shine like the star I am. Granted, it has only been three days. J

More to come…

Love Always,

Elle