At some point in your life, an undeniable passion grasps ahold of your soul and directs you toward whatever your fate may be. Every person is created differently and is born with a different fate; Miley Cyrus apparently was put on this Earth to make twerking and tongue-wagging famous and Zac Posen was created to pleat and drape until the mouth of every woman drops in admiration. My passion, creating art both musically and aesthetically, has been clinging to my heart for as long as I can remember and is what I believe I am meant to do. There was not a specific “eureka” moment of realization of my life’s passion, I have just always loved music and fashion.

My junior year of high school, when I started planning and thinking about my future, I freaked out a little bit. I had been touring various colleges that provided for every type of major, but I could not picture myself studying at any of them. I figured out quickly that I was not meant to be a doctor, lawyer, or any other profession that all parents dream of for their children- due to my sudden sickness at the sight of blood and my strong loathing to argue about any disagreement; although I am very good at it, and I was left unsure of who I was supposed to be. Societal expectations were not mixing well with my heart’s true desires and I eventually chose to ignore society’s pleas. Following my heart, I knew that I wanted to continue pursuing music- I had already been signed to AGP Records as a writer and a recording artist for about six months, but I also had this strong desire to incorporate the love I have always had for the craft of fashion design into my career. I was not entirely sure how to do so.

“FIT was the perfect fit for me”

Then, miraculously, I read the Teen Vogue Handbook and The Fashion Designer Survival Guide. After reading both incredibly informative “sacred texts”, how I choose to refer to those life-saving books, in which the Fashion Institute of Technology is sufficiently discussed and praised, studying fashion design, specifically at FIT, suddenly became a very enticing option for furthering my education. It clicked: music and fashion.

With my mind completely set on going to school for fashion, I toured the FIT campus March of 2013 and something about it simply, and finally, felt right. I could actually see myself living there: attending classes, joining clubs, studying in my dorm, designing, learning about the business, and actually having interests and talents in common with other students- something I have struggled with my entire life because of growing up in a small town that did not bestow many outlets through which I could express my designing capabilities or my creativity. I had read in some book or advice column that students “just know” when a college is right for them in the same way that someone “just knows” when he or she meets the person with whom he or she is destined to marry and love forever. Whoever wrote that spoke the truth; I “just knew” that FIT was the perfect fit for me, no pun intended.