Today as I unpack boxes I find glimpses of myself throughout the years. The volleyball t-shirt from the sixth grade that I so proudly wore, the unbelievably ugly decorations that maybe should spend the rest of their existence remaining in a box, the cards that my Mother wrote me many moons ago. It has all made me a bit nostalgic and brought me to a day when I was home a few weeks ago. A moment spent around a table with almost all of my Aunts and the most beautiful and the strongest of all, my Grandmother.
You see leaving Okinawa I felt like I lost a little bit of myself. I went there, figured myself out, and when I left I couldn’t help but wonder if all that I found was coming along or if it would remain behind.
Then sitting around that table, hearing my Aunts interact and talk to each other, I saw glimpses of myself. I realized at that moment what I found in Okinawa would always remain because it has always been there. A gift blessed to me by the women before me. Women who loved me as their own and showed me the ways of motherhood and life from my youngest of days.
This thought led me to thinking of the woman who shaped me the most. The woman who taught me the value of hard work by working so hard herself. The woman who taught me emotion by sharing her untiring love to me. The woman, no matter how rotten I can be, loves me in my darkest hour and doesnt ask any questions. The one who as hard as it can be to hear, tells me to stand back up and to be strong. The woman I am lucky to call my Mom.
Living a million, it seems, miles from my loved ones there have been years that I have spent away from these women. Lucky for me, other women have come into my life, and stepped right in when life takes its many twist and turns, good and bad. These women have become family to me. They are those friends that you can say anything to. Many years can pass, but yet the moment you see them, it is as if nothing has changed. These women come into your life when you need them the most and love you until you are full.
Serena Nicole Studios is being reborn. My days are spent dreaming and planning of what is to come. I am becoming more and more excited as my vision is becoming more and more clear. It is going to be a beautiful new twist to my style and I am already in love with the ideas in my head. Seeing it come into reality is a dream for me that I cant wait to share with each of you.
As I dream and my visions are coming to life, I find myself pulling. Pulling from all the women in my life. Those I was blessed with as family, the wonderful ones I married into, and those friends that have become my family. So as I begin this new journey, I am not alone, nor can I take credit, for I am walking this path with all of them in my heart. So thank you. Thank each of you for blessing me so that I can dream.
With Love,
SN
