When I shared the news that I was planning to relocate to the Pacific-Northwest, I can count on one hand how many people supported the idea. It was a risk, I knew it then and still to this day, 6 years prior. It’s still a risk.

When I packed my car (Bethany, the absolute best car I've here had), say my goodbyes and drive over three thousand miles from Florida to Seattle, I did it alone. With just a job lined up, that's it. No one waiting on me, no apartment that I could just pull up to, pull back the curtains to let the light in, take a deep breath and bask in that fresh air of a new chapter. No, just a job. A decision that I couldn't explain to anyone who knew me - I couldn't shake it. The Labyrinth shifted.

I came here to shed a version of myself I'd outgrown. The cycles. The compromises. The habit of making things work for everyone except myself. But I was also community.

Now, let's be real, Seattle didn'tmake it easy. I lost jobs out here. Drained my 401k. Almost lost my apartment. There were months where the gap between where I was and where I needed to be felt like it was widening instead of closing.

But I didn't come three thousand miles to end up back at zero.

One night - broke, tired, no clear plan - something shifted. I'd spent ten years in fashion. I knew color, mood, identity. I knew how to build something that felt like somewhere and if unsure, I could pull inspiration from the world around me. Even more so, whatever doesn't work, I could learn from. I realized I'd been building that for everyone else my entire career.

So when it came time that I felt grounded, I knew It was time to build it for myself.