I don’t want to sit here and bore you to death with a 3 page diatribe about my life, but maybe at some point you’ll be reading one of my posts and find yourself wondering who the hell I am. It’s hard for me not to go off on a tangent, but I’ll try to stay on topic and condense as much as possible, I promise.
I think that writing an introduction about yourself is one of the most difficult things to do. You want to give people a general overview about your life without coming off as a self-centered, douche-y, jackass. However, the need to paint your life as the picture of bliss and contentment is just human nature I suppose. How many times have you seen a friend’s Facebook or Instagram post and laughed out loud to yourself because you knew what a load of crap it was? We all do it, don’t lie.
I like to “keep it real” as they say and my good friends know this. If you ask about your new hair style, or how your outfit looks and I think it’s shitty, I’m gonna say so. This doesn’t always win me awards and it’s not for everyone. Some people just think I’m kind of an asshole and that’s okay. I’m just giving you fair warning that I’m not going to sugar-coat everything.
At this point, said friends are probably laughing out loud in the way I mentioned earlier. I can hear it now: ‘Bitch, you totally have the ‘my fabulous life (as seen on Facebook)’ syndrome. It’s really not that though; it’s more along the lines of not being one of those people that feels the need to share the really awful stuff with every single person I know in a public forum. Will I bitch about stuff that annoys me? Do I get severely depressed at times? Of course, so, I’m not saying it never happens.
Anyway, I digress. I was born and raised in the south-side of Chicago. I attended 9 years of private Catholic school, which really just eventually pushed me to being Agnostic. I’m half German and can read and speak the language fairly well. I played guitar for a few years and have a really wide range of musical tastes. I like to run and am a fan of playing racket sports. When it comes to spectator sports I like hockey and football mostly. You know, the ones with all the good fighting.
I used to be an avid reader. Literally novel after novel, after novel. I could take down 3 books in a week like nothing. I’d like to find time to reignite that passion.
I’ve always been crafty and into design, even at an early age. I loved anything I could get my hands on to draw, create or build with. Hell, I was cross-stitching when I was 7. While most girls were playing with Barbie, I was sewing her new dresses and making my own scrunchies. Mom was a seamstress and taught me the basics. I would use her scraps for my little projects. Later on I would up my sewing skills to making shirts and bags so I could have exactly what I was looking for.
On the flipside of that, I was also a tomboy. I chalk that up to the fact that pretty much my entire neighborhood was made up of boys. So the other half of my summers were spent finding scraps to build bike ramps, go-karts and learning bike tricks that probably would have had my mom freaking out had she seen them. I’m really thankful for those experiences now. I feel like scrapping for parts and trying to figure out how the hell to build things like that with no directions whatsoever really helped me develop some unique problem-solving and design skills. One of my nicknames is MacGyver, after all. I also think this is why I’ve always had way more guy friends in my lifetime. I just feel pretty at ease around dudes for the most part, which is both a blessing and a curse.
Around age 12 I started in on little jewelry kits and I fell in love with making my own accessories. Though I would put it all aside many, many times over years, it was the one thing I always kept going back to at some point. The one thing I’ve never really lost my passion for, that I’m now hoping to turn into a profitable business. If only it were that simple, but that’s a post for another day.
I got a summer job at the local Kmart when I was 16 working in ladies apparel. My ‘summer job’ ended up being nearly 6 years. My thirst for wanting to know everything about the job had led me up the ladder to store management. So I stuck with the retail management thing for another 5 years, working at the Charlotte Russe chain of apparel stores in various malls.
Meanwhile, I had gone to college for website design and then graphic design, but I didn’t finish. Either I already knew what I was learning (I’m really big on self-teaching) or I just became really frustrated with the curriculum. Honestly though, when in the blue Hell am I going to use ‘Religions of the World’ and ‘Ancient Civilizations’ when creating a website?! It’s so ridiculous to me that we’re forced to take classes that have absolutely no relevance to the field we’ve chosen.
I finally settled on taking a trade school class in interior decorating. After getting certified, I left my retail days behind to work on flipping houses with a friend, but that was pretty short-lived. Starting up a website for one of my favorite TV series led me back into web design and I tried the college course one last time. I managed to make it through one semester. I think it was the much-loathed ‘Environmental Science’ class that led to my giving the institution a big middle finger one last time.
It was also during this time that I started learned about databases, social media, blogging, podcasts and started writing short stories again. Engaging with other fans through my website eventually led me to join the team at Variety Radio Online. Getting to interview celebrities and cover events like ComicCon every year has been one of the most amazing experiences in my life. Sadly, I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I would have liked to in the last few years.
Shortly thereafter, I decided to reenter the retail world and got a job at Lover’s Lane. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s an adult store. Some people kind of give me a look when I say that, but it wasn’t one of ‘those’ kinds of adult stores. It was geared towards couples and keeping the romance alive. I’ve always had a dirty mind (probably thanks to hanging out with guys all the time, lol) and never had an issue talking about sex, so it was a good fit and a lot of fun. Not to mention, quite another learning experience to say the least. Unfortunately, after a few years I got moved to a store location that was kind of in the middle of nowhere. Business was slow and the dreaded boredom set in.
That’s when the real craziness came to fruition. I handed in my notice and began selling off my possessions. I packed up the remainder, said goodbye to all my family and friends, and left the only home I’d ever known. I got on the interstate and headed west until I reached Los Angeles, the place I’d dreamed of living since I had first visited back in 2000.
My original goal was to be a production assistant. I’d been on sets before and had done some extra work and it was always a blast. Plus, I figured it was something so random, not only could I put my various skills to work, I wouldn’t get bored either.
While I began looking into that, I still needed work in the meantime. I quickly found a position working in a bead and jewelry supply store part time. In addition to what I already knew, I learned some new techniques and after a few short weeks started teaching classes for extra cash. Then I was offered the opportunity to have a whole location to run myself, which I jumped at as it was across from CBS Studios. I figured it would be a good locale to make some connections and indeed it was. However, I had once again discovered my deep love for making jewelry. I started making samples and people were buying them up. I started selling on Etsy as well. Things were moving along nicely and I decided this was what I actually wanted to do. I’d made a lot of new friends, gained some valuable inside knowledge and was ready to push forward.
Unfortunately, I got side-tracked and started spending most of my free time helping out someone that kept coming to my store. I couldn’t help it, he was very passionate about wanting to create his products and I admired that and wanted to jump in and share all my knowledge. Well, I guess I shouldn’t really say unfortunately. We became great friends, I did learn some new things and had quite a few crazy adventures I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
Then again… it also led me to leave the bead store for a different job that ended up closing and trading my nice little apartment for a crappy live/work loft in the ghetto that ended up getting shut down by the city. Damn, I’m really not sure how to categorize it all. Then again, life’s all about the experiences and trials right?
Hopefully you haven’t turned into a skeleton yet.
Anyway, I’m basically kind of in a state of limbo right now. I tossed everything into a storage unit and sold the rest to come to Europe for a few months and clear my head. New places, new faces and time to figure out how to get my life back on track. I’ve already started one of MIT’s free online business classes and have been reading up on the principles of marketing. Woohoo.
So now you know why I say I’m a Jill of all trades. I’ve learned how to do so many random different things over the years, it’s ridiculous. Believe it or not, I’ve actually left a lot of stuff out! People often just kind of stare at me with a glazed-over look when I tell them all the different things I’ve learned, studied and done in my life. To me, it honestly doesn’t really seem like a big deal.
Truth be told, I somewhat feel like a failure because I don’t have a stable 9-5 career at this point in my life. The simple fact is, I get bored really easily and I constantly want to learn and create new things. So the same day in, day out routine really wears thin on me, more so the older I get. Having said that, I’m now wondering if that’s a subconscious ‘you’re running out of time’ thing. Hmph. I’ll have to ponder that another day.
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Let Nikki Handle It 