New Outlook
As I got off plane and headed to my hotel, I knew it was going to be an interesting time. I have traveled and stayed by myself before, but it was nice to meet up with a few friends that live in NYC before my program officially begins. For my first night in NYC, I planned to go to dinner with Lyka at Beauty and Essex. Lyka who is one of my current mentors I met at a networking event for the NYC Fashion Program. She was a past MUF&D modeling director and a Miami Alum who graduated a few years ago before I was a freshman at the time. I hadn’t seen Lyka in a while and I couldn’t wait to catch up with her.
Once I got settled in my hotel room, I left for the restaurant. However, I didn’t realize how bad the traffic was. Usually in Chicago, you can hail a cab or walk and be fine with time except I wasn’t prepared for NYC traffic. I completely forgot how bad it was considering I haven’t been back in NYC since January of last year and I also wasn’t too comfortable taking the subway by myself. I had an old metro card that may or may not work so I didn’t want to take a chance. I was stuck in traffic for a very very very long time to the point where it was ridiculous.
Then when I got to the restaurant, it had an interesting set-up. The entrance of the building is a jewelry shop so I thought ‘oh no I’m literally at the wrong place’ and panicked. Then I called Lyka and she came by the door. When I walked in, it was the most beautiful, unique place that I’ve ever had dinner at. It had an essence of the Great Gatsby and Breakfast at Tiffany’s all combined into one restaurant. I was in total awe. The walls were covered in white marble, mirrors, and fur. The chandeliers spread across with diamonds and pearls like a perfect stream. It felt like I was in a dream.
As Lyka and I got seated, we began catching up with each other. During our conversation, she gave me a lot of important insight from that dinner that I didn’t know I needed until that moment. I had a lot of things on my mind for the future in terms of internships and jobs for the future and she said something that was remarkable. It made me remember my ‘why’ in life. She suggested for me to make important decisions from the ‘gut’. To not only avoid being impulsive, but to be more mindful. I learned from Lyka is that you have to be confident in who you are as a person in order to achieve your goal and work hard to earn it while balancing out all the outcomes. It was comforting hearing that from her.
After we finished dinner, we both headed out and went back home (in this case hotel room). I was really happy when I left because not only did I have a great time hanging out with Lyka, but she was really helpful to me and I’m grateful that I met her as a mentor.
Tomorrow my plan is to sleep in a little bit, go to the Garment District and Korea town, and meet up with my friends Nikita and Kamila for dinner! I’m most looking forward to venturing out on my own for the day and meeting up with my friends since they graduated last year and I haven’t had a chance to see them in a while.