Hi everyone, and welcome to my first ever official blog post (had a blog once in college at FIT, but we were forced to do it for a class project🙊).....Anyway, as I sit here trying to come up with my first post and tell you who I am I’m realizing that its much easier said than done. You know you always think you know exactly who you are before you sit down and write one of these and then your like “Who the hell am I?!?”......
I know you have all been there before when a test, application or survey asks “describe yourself in 100 words or less” and you are either saying to yourself, “Damn! That not enough words!” or your saying, “I don’t even have one adjective to describe myself.” The point is that society tries to force us into boxes when in reality, it’s not that simple!
Regardless of this, I’m still going to try and give you the short version of who I am and where I come from.
My name is Michelle Leigh Radow and I am 24 years old (turning 25 real soon, shout out to all of my libras) and I'm from Bayside, NY born and raised!! Whoop Whoop! I have a twin sister named Gabby, a loving mother and father and a soulmate named Alec. I'm third generation Russian and Polish and I work as a Marketing Coordinator for a Dance Sneaker company named Pastry.
Enough with the textbook “About me” and onto the important stuff. You may ask questions such as “Why in the world are you doing all of this social media stuff?” or “OMG why would you want to be like everyone else when everyone on social media now thinks they’re an Instagram model” or for those of you who actually know the true me, “Why did you wait so long to do this?!?!”..... The true reason I am doing this is because I was finally ready to share my love, passion, and ambition for all things fashion to everyone. I was finally in a good spot in my life where I knew what I wanted to do and knew what I was good at. I was and am over being put in a box and given restrictions on how to do a job I love to do! And lastly and most importantly, I felt ready to be me.
Lets go back to that last phrase, “ready to be me.” For those of you who don’t know me, lost touch with me right at the beginning of high school, or just simply didn’t notice, high school was a tough road for me. I had finally left the “bullies” I had grown up with I had left behind at my zoned high school and finally had a chance to reinvent myself. Once I got there, I experienced my most difficult struggle. Still to this day being unsure of what really triggered it, about a month in in Spanish class I suffered an extreme bout of anxiety and depression. For those of you who have never experienced this, its truly unexplainable. I was in and out of the psychologist’s office at Cardozo High School, in and out of the hospital and in and out of school for a disorder that my family nor I understood at the time. Throughout that year and the rest of high school, I began to learn that suicide was not my only option and that help from my mom and loved ones help give me a guiding light to the other side of this dark tunnel. With a lot of help and guidance, I was able to recover and learn to live with these feelings and emotions.
Fast forward to couple of months ago where I finally felt like I could show my “scars” and show people that you can do what you love even when you have “scars”.
Fashion came into my life at around high school. Fashion was my way of escaping how sick, alone, and out if control I felt. The more I dressed up in mismatched prints, bows, and heels (I never said the beginning was pretty) the better I felt! It was like everyday for a couple minutes each day when someone said “Love your outfit!” it finally made me feel “real” again ( I know this all sounds super cliché but I truly mean it). From then on I knew fashion would forever hold a spot in my heart.
After a few years of healing and dealing with my condition, I met the love of my life. I can go on and on about this forever but ill stick to the two sentence version and save the rest for another blog post :) It was the very end of my junior year and his sophomore year (Yes I'm a cougar!). Long story short, we worked at camp together and the rest is history. We were young, careless, and most importantly not looking for love and it just hit us. We were inseparable (whoops that’s three sentences lol).
I went to undergrad at SUNY Oneonta, which was the best thing for me given my anxiety. I had a few hiccups where mom had to come “rescue” me but my support system grew and so did my friend group. I joined a sorority (not your typical one) and met some of the best people I have ever met in my entire life. The plan was to got to FIT for my senior year (the worst time to leave your friends) for the program I was in but I knew I had to follow my dreams. After what seemed to be a minute (because I loved the city so much), I graduated and moved home with my mom and sister. I got my first job after 9 hard months of applying and have been working for Vida Shoes International ever since.
It's hard to say for sure what road or path I will continue to take but it's definitely a blessed one. I work hard, play hard, but most of all I'm a lover. I always look to find the beauty in the world. Too many people focus on the negativity and that’s when you truly miss out on what life has to offer. I hope to inspire people to do the same.
My main message that I hope to spread as long as I have two feet on planet earth is to do what you love even if your not feeling your best and to follow your heart as it will always guide you in the right direction. If you heart says yes but your mind says no, tell your mind to take a back seat for a day and enjoy the ride. Take it from me, it will be worth the adventure.
Xoxo,
Mischele
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