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Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl with a Passion for Interior Design

This is a true story.
There once was a little girl who had a passion for interior decorating.
She loved hanging things on her bedroom walls in all different collages.
She loved repainting her bedroom different colors.
She once even had her Mimi paint a rainbow on her new bedroom wall. And her mom made a rainbow quilt for her bed to go with the wall mural.

When she grew out of that she chose the perfect blue and peach wallpaper for the walls, found the coziest peach comforter and recovered the old living room chair in a coordinating blue.
Decorating, redecorating and redesigning her bedroom was her passion.
In her spare time she drew floor plans of her New York penthouse apartment.
She dreamed about the floor to ceiling windows, the open floor plan and how plush and cozy her bedroom would be. There would even be a master bathroom all her own, because sharing 1 bathroom with the 7 people she lived with was for the birds!

As the little girl grew, the ‘real world’ seeped into her personality.
When she started to think about college, she started to think about what she should be when she grew up. There was no HGTV back then. She didn’t know any interior designers. She didn’t even know anyone that had an interior designer. Most of her family were teachers. She loved kids. So she figured she’d go to school for Early Childhood Education.

Off she went.
But, guess what. She wasn’t passionate about it. She didn’t love it. And, confession time, she didn’t finish college. But after she dropped out, the only thing she thought she could do was teach. So she got her state certificate and went to work teaching preschool.
She liked it.
She loved the kids, most of them.
But here’s the thing, when you’re not passionate about what you’re doing you don’t put your all into it and you subconsciously seek something else.
You know what?
After a year and a half of teaching she started looking for apartments with her boyfriend, an hour and a half away from my current job. She had no plan as to what to do for work. Maybe she’d look for a preschool there to teach at, but she didn’t really want to.
Then she got pregnant. She and her boyfriend started to look for a 2-bedroom apartment. Now 1991 was a different time. Being unmarried and pregnant was NOT an accepted situation. They even had one woman who didn’t want to rent an apartment to parents that weren’t married. But, she did. And they moved in.
One year later an opportunity came up for them to buy a house and some land from the bank.
The house was a dump! It was hundreds of years old, covered in cat pee, infested with snakes and bugs and totally lacking insulation. So why not buy it!  It actually was a great investment, a great price for a house and a piece of land.

She got married. They had another baby. They were happy. But, they dreamed of a brick house in the woods. They sacrificed. They saved their money.

They started building their dream home. It took 4 years. But, they did it.

When their friends and family saw their new home they all told her she should be an interior designer and she remembered how she loved that when she was little.
She started to dream about it again. She started to feel excited about a job!
But, how could she work, raise her kids, still take care of her husband and their home and go to school?
Here’s where the passion comes in.
She did it. She went to college and everyone survived.

She started her own business!
And she loved it!
It took a few years, but her business took off.
Her clients loved that she wasn’t a ‘stuffy’ designer.
Her clients loved that she was down to earth.
Her clients loved that she listened to them.
Her clients loved that she personalized their home for them.
Her clients loved that she made a well designed home accessible to them.
Her clients loved that their interior designer was a jeans wearing, sometimes swearing, pony tailed person like them.
Her passion shined through.

The moral of this story?
Life is short.
Are you passionate about your job?
Are you passionate about your home?
Are you passionate about your life?
Why not?
If not, make a change. You can do this!
Everyone has ‘stuff’ that they go through, but if you’re not happy and passionate about what you’re doing, and who you’re doing it with, then make a change!
It doesn’t have to be drastic.
Baby steps, we’ve got this!

#DecorateWithWhatMakesYouHappy