Letter from the editor

What I am currently living right now, feels like a dream. A culmination of the past 8 years of my life, all coming true, all coming at me, faster than I can keep up with.

I just launched my first clothing brand on 2/9/2024.

It doesn’t feel real. I don’t feel ready.

I spent all of my younger years yearning for exactly what is becoming my reality right now, and I don’t know how to handle that. How to handle the heaviness of my dreams coming true.

Like, it worked? It actually worked?

When I look back, it all seems too good to be true, too good to be my life.

I swore I’d chase this goal until I was dead, so you can imagine my bewilderment when I looked down to notice that, I’d caught it. The chase is over.

I’m holding it in my hands, and now it’s up to me to decide what to do with it.

I’ve always expected the coming true of it because I knew I’d never give up, I just didn’t know when it’d happen.

Which is why this feeling of pure astonishment that it’s already come true, makes me wonder if I’m ready for it all.

Ready for everything that I’ve asked for? Ready for the dream to become a reality? Ready to become the person I was born to be?

I truly have been working on this since I can’t even remember when. Since my first year of college. Since I graduated high school. Since I got my first job.

It’s all I can remember ever wanting.

This brand is a representation of myself, of my mind, of my thoughts. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been fascinated by our universe and all of the mysteries that come with it.

I know I’ve said it a million times, but for me, time has always been the greatest mystery of all (time). Although now, I think I’d disagree with that statement, simply because the greatest mystery of all, is us.

Life. Consciousness.

This is why I made the brand slogan, ‘Thanks for the mystery’. It’s the title of the brand story as well as the name of our first collection.

The conceptualization came very naturally to me because I love existential questions.

What's the meaning of life? How do I exist? Why does existence exist?

I've always had these big, deep thoughts about life, and I wanted to create something that everyone could be a part of.

The hard part was coming up with a name for it all but eventually, I did. That was September 2023 and from there, it was go-time.

I’ve only cried about it once, the stress of it all I mean. Because I will not lie, right now I am operating a one-woman show.

Then again, I’ve always been operating a one-woman show and I’m used to it. Correction, I’m good at it.

When people ask me why I wanted to start a brand, I have a lot of answers.

For money. For freedom. Because I’m up for the challenge. Because I can.

But the answer that resonates most with me, and this might sound too deep and philosophical for some, is because I was born to.

I believe we all have a destiny. I believe the past exists just as much as the future exists, and we are just moving along a path that the stars carved out for us a long time ago, that is if you believe that they did.

I believe I came into this world with a purpose, and I believe I have been blessed with the passion and drive to fulfill that purpose.

The universe has given me the power to wholeheartedly know what I want, and I am very aware that in this world, figuring out what you want and then having the courage to go for it, is one of the hardest and steepest hills to climb.

However, I also know that with this blessing comes great responsibility. Responsibility to live up to my purpose and inspire others to do the same.

No one has the same mind as you, so act like it. You have things that you came here to do, and only you know what they are, so act like it.

This is my commitment, my modern manifesto.

A promise to live for the younger me, the 19-year-old me who worked her ass off to get here. Who never quit, and who did it all for the future version of me, for this version of me. I owe it to her to go all the way.

Sometimes I don’t know how I figured it all out, how I kept going. How she kept going. But here we are, we made it.

Here we are, but here we cannot stay.

Forward we march, into the unknown.

It's a call to growth, to expansion, beyond the comfort zones I’ve come to know. Here we are, but here we cannot stay, for life is a constant motion, an endless journey of becoming.

Every step taken, every setback faced, and every triumph celebrated has prepared me for this moment.

The realization of my dreams is not the final destination. It's a nod to the dedication and effort my younger self invested, and a gentle nudge from my future self, granting me passage toward the things they know I will come to achieve.

The realization of my dreams is not the final destination.

It’s proof that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Proof that I’m ready.