Life After High School & Where I Am Now

Life After High School & Where I Am Now

Hey guys! Sit back & relax because this is going to be a super long story! If you know me well you probably already know most of the story if not the whole thing. I am finally in a state in my life where I am ready to talk about the truths of life after high school & where I am now as far as career choices go. 

So all throughout high school I never really had my heart set on a certain career path I wanted to go down. I almost would force myself to tell people I was gonna go to school for something & seem super passionate about it but deep down I knew I didn’t have my 100% into what I was telling people & if I had told people I was undecided I was afraid I was gonna get judged. 

As a senior in high school I dreaded going to the college & career center because everyone in the class had their heart so set on something & there was me still saying I wanted to be in the medical field. I’m not gonna lie school had never been my thing. I was an average student. I only liked going to school to be with my friends. 

Actually what I planned on wanting to do is that I wanted to be an EKG Technician which it honestly is super cool but I don’t know it still seemed like I was forcing myself. I will never forget during spring break of my senior year I had a weird feeling that whole day & as I was getting ready for the day I had this super weird gut feeling in my stomach. 

The gut feeling was telling me that I truly didn’t want to do the EKG Technician thing at all & I remember telling my mom how I felt & I am super blessed I have such an understanding mom & she completely understood so for the last few months of my senior year I did research on what I wanted to do. 

Summer after graduation came around & I still hadn’t been enrolled in college. I was just enjoying my summer avoiding every possible way to think about it because I was still so unsure. I had a talk with my mom about it one summer day & I told her how unsure I was & that I didn’t even wanna go to college at this point.

What my mom’s reaction was absolutely shocked me. She then told me, “It’s ok you can take the semester off, get a part time job, & still do some soul searching you are in no rush!” I was so relieved whenever I heard that because throughout my life the thought of college was always so forced on me so the fact I had a choice definitely took a weight off of my shoulder. 

I was so afraid to tell my friends about the decision I had made because I felt like I was gonna get judged. Trust me, that first year alone I was told so many things that absolutely frustrated me about the decision I had made but looking back on it now almost 3 years later I have finally come to terms that going a different direction was for the best!

Over the years too I learned I wasn’t the only one with doubts & that almost everyone has their doubts as some point especially as young adults. Being a young adult itself can be very confusing at times. You aren’t a teenager but you aren’t a full on adult. 

 I was suppose to be starting my basics or whatever certification program I was going to do because the idea of basics absolutely frustrated me. I’ve always been the type that I wanted to get straight to the point & the real deal so even when I was doing soul searching certification programs always sounded better for me. 

That first semester that I was suppose to start college I spent it trying to find myself a part time job so I can step my foot into the work world & just explore myself even more. A month into job hunting I had taken on my first job as a seasonal cashier at Kohl’s which I will always be thankful for that experience.

My experience at Kohl’s was absolutely wild! It definitely made me tougher & it also made me realize that cashiering 24/7 was not my thing even though I was decent at it the whole being stuck behind a register all day is not something I would want to do every single day. There were times where I enjoyed doing recovery & learning about the brands they sold so much more better than doing a transaction. 

Whenever my seasonal time ended I did another month of job searching because I still wasn’t sure about what I wanted to go to school for & I liked making money more than sitting in a classroom learning something I wasn’t passionate about. I then landed on my second job over at Express as a sales associate. 

Express was such great experience for me because I got to learn so much more than being behind a register. I learned about visuals, floor sets, markdowns, shipment, & even styling. I always loved fashion but I never did my full research on it till I started working at Express. Unfortunately that job wasn’t a forever job & I still had bigger ambitions.

Express made me realize that I really loved working around clothes & fashion & I definitely wanted to learn more. It felt great to know that I had found something I was passionate in. I was over at Express for 6 months before I landed on my next opportunity which was where I landed my stylist position at Francesca’s.

I had taken on Francesca’s as a second job with Express as well before dropping Express to pursue the opportunities Francesca’s was giving me. I knew for a while I had wanted to be in a boutique setting. Somewhere small, fun, & has a huge variety of stuff. I was welcomed there with such open arms & I loved everything the company had to offer. 

Francesca’s has opened my eyes more to fashion, accessorizing, & talking to customers. I have learned so much alone about talking to customers & selling through the company & I have honestly learned & grown so much from it. I’ve also met pretty amazing people along the way too from co workers to customers.

I knew a few months into the job that I wanted to move up with the company & become a sales lead which is a mini manager position & in the position you lead others & take on lots of responsibility. I decided to grow in the current position I was in before I thought about a promotion because of how much responsibility the job held I needed to be at my best in the current position I was in.

I was a stylist for 11 months before I made the decision to go for the promotion. My manager had been gearing me up for it for a while & so did my co workers so I mentally felt ready. A few days after I interviewed I found out I had got the promotion & that’s how I landed at my current job that I hold now as a Sales Lead at Francesca’s.

With how busy my schedule got & how caught up I got in my job I held off for a long time the idea of going back to school because I was learning so much. In my job I lead the stylists below me, train, work the fitting room creating head to toe looks for customers, do behind the scenes opening & closing procedures, set daily goals, & even go on conference calls.

As much as I love my job & what I do I still have a bigger picture in my mind of what I wanna do. I see myself one day being a main store manager at a Francesca’s or somewhere like it. But as all people in retail say, “Retail is a tough world!” They are absolutely right about that too. Retail has its pros & cons. 

Do I want to do retail forever? Probably not. Is it fine for now? Yes. In the past few months I went back into researching about school & I ran into these Ed2Go classes which are quick little 6 week classes you do online & I always told myself I would wanna do online classes so I could still work the amount I’m working.

So I recently just got a new laptop so I can start fresh & I am so proud to announce that I have officially signed up for an Ed2Go class through Del Mar College about professional sales & leadership skills. I am super excited about this because this is a huge bold step for me especially being back in a school setting. 

January is a real downtime for retail so I will start in January! Maybe after I do these classes it will open up a door to something I would have never thought about if it weren’t for taking the classes. It doesn’t hurt to try. The class is cheap & I really think it’s gonna be such a huge growing experience for me. 

I have done some more soul searching & eventually I do want to get my real estate license & possibly get into real estate because I’ve always been so interested in finding out why a family wants to buy in a certain area & the whole house hunting process has always fascinated me so I have no idea when but I definitely want to take a shot at that!

I wanted to share my story here of life after high school because maybe you are feeling conflicted about your career decisions & maybe you need a reminder that you aren’t alone. If you ever feel conflicted or confused or want to know more about management you are more than welcome to DM me. I know at 18 if I had talked to the me now to confused 18 year old me, 18 year old me would have been SHOOK!

Am I 100% set stone on what I wanna do with my life? Not fully. Do I have new ambitions & goals for myself? Of course yes!!! I will probably change my mind again & again. I’m young I don’t have  to make a final decision today. I am still discovering myself. 

I had been so scared to open up about my decision not attend college right away for so long because of how judged I felt like I was gonna be but I am who I am today because of my journey I’ve been on & will continue to be on. I can’t wait to find out what 2019 & the future have for me!