Guys, I graduated last December!!! I’m so proud and happy about it and I want to motivate you by sharing more with you.
It hasn’t been a walk in the park to get where I got and I’m aware of the amount of motivation it sometimes takes to achieve you goals (whether they are educationally related or not). This is why I wanted to share my story and – hopefully – inspire you and motivate you to reach your goals.
2007 to 2010 – Language years
I was in compulsory college following the core curriculum along with the Italian option I had chosen by elimination. (I could choose among 4 options: maths, economics, Latin and Italian. Math and economics were too “intellectual” for me, Latine didn’t interest me that much, so I chose Italian, because I’ve always had something for cultures and languages). I had good grades at the end of the three years, which, according to the Swiss educational system, allowed me to go to sixth-form college, which then allowed me to access University and EPFL (a technical college).
2010 to 2014 – First failure (and not the last one), finding love, choosing fashion
I went to sixth-form college as I was kind of meant to do. This time, among all the possibilities, I chose the Biology and Chemistry main option as I wanted to do medical studies afterwards.
The first year went well, but the second one… I failed. Looking back, I don’t really know what happened; while I went out quite a lot during weekends (it surely didn’t help), I still studied a lot, but at some point I was overwhelmed. I didn’t manage to understand the technical fields anymore (maths, chemistry, physics, …) while I was putting a lot of effort into it and I just couldn’t keep up. It was the first time of my life that I failed at school, I was so upset!
I made the request to be transferred to another sixth-form college to repeat my second year and do the third one, because the atmosphere of my previous college wasn’t the best and I needed a change.
And… it was for the best: first of all, I found love (7 years later, I’m still with this amazing guy!!), secondly, I was going flat out! I had better grades than ever before and even became quite good at maths and physics (not in chemistry though haha). This change really helped me and I’m super grateful to the teachers I had there, because they were good and genuinely here to help. I also forgot the idea of becoming a doctor and got interested in arts. I chose Arts and History of arts as a secondary option during the third year. I did my Matura thesis about Van Gogh and presented a swan inspired outfit as part of my third option’s final evaluation.
While I was finishing sixth-grade college, I started applying to fashion design schools, wanting to become a designer. I had always been interested in fashion, but it never really came to my mind as a real option… I guess it was because the system and everyone around encourage more “intellectual” studies (not saying that fashion isn’t intellectual, but it’s rather creative). I finished with good grades and successfully graduated from sixth form college.
2014 – Second failure and audacious decision
I had applied to two fashion design schools, but I only got accepted to one, which was my plan B. Although I was happy to have got in this one, I was disappointed to have been rejected to the other one.
I started the school I got accepted to anyway, but after the first day, I knew I wouldn’t like it. To be short, the program had changed and we weren’t informed beforehand, so it didn’t correspond to what I was expecting anymore and therefore it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I told my parents who must have thought that I was throwing a tantrum and told me there was no way I could quit. Actually, my dad ended up saying “in any case, you won’t quit unless you find something else to do!”.
Guess what I did? I found something else to do. I looked for a job, rapidly found one and told my parents I was quitting this school after four weeks there. They weren’t happy at all, firstly because they wanted me to study, secondly because they knew my dream was to work within the fashion industry and didn’t want me to abandon. In addition to that, they’ve always told me that I should fight for what I really want to do, and it seemed like I was giving up. My decision obviously went against their beliefs and what they thought would be best for me. But I knew I was right and I never regretted this decision.
2014 to 2015 – Working, realising the importance of studies
I started my new job which was in a luxury retail store in my hometown (in Lausanne, Switzerland) where I was a shop assistant for about 5 months. The job wasn’t intellectually difficult, but some days seemed very long and it wasn’t always fun to deal with certain clients and colleagues. However, it was an amazing experience from which I’ve learnt a lot! I had some really nice and inspiring colleagues who helped me find myself again. They made me realise how lucky I was to be able to study and how many doors this would allow me to open. I believe they played a role, along with my parents, in making me consider going back to school. So yeah, I’m super grateful for this experience! Indeed, after going through a period of my life where I was completely lost regarding my education/”career”, the decision was taken : I would get back to studies.
2015 to 2016 – Finding a school and an internship
I figured out which school I wanted to go to: a business school, but had to do a one-year internship before being able to get in. I was lucky enough to find an amazing internship in marketing, sales and events for a company running two activities: events and tourist activity. This allowed me to gain a lot of experience (that has been very useful for my following jobs and still is) and to find fields I loved working in: events and marketing.
2016 – But first: New York!
My saleswoman’s job and internship allowed me to save some money which I wanted to “invest in myself”. I had always dreamt on going abroad to improve my english and felt like it was the perfect occasion, so I decided to make it become a reality: I would go to New York City, the city of my dreams, during two months. It was important to me to get something concrete out of it, therefore I planned to take the Cambridge CAE exam. Guess what? I passed! And apart from that, I lived my best life in New York and met amazing people!
2016-2019 The beginning of what seemed impossible at first
I came back from New York and directly started some maths and accounting preparation courses to get ready for my first year of studies. I had these lessons twice a week during all summer; it wasn’t always fun, but it was useful!
Then, it was finally time to start my very first year of Bachelor in Business Administration! And let me tell you: I WAS LOST. I had never studied economics, accounting and many other topics while almost everyone else in the class had, and I wasn’t good at maths, stats and all these technical fields. I was stressed, but this was my “last chance”. I didn’t have the luxury to fail or quit anymore, I had to obtain this Bachelor. This determination and huge amount of stress that kind of dictated my life for three years ended up paying. Okay, to be honest, the first year I didn’t pass my accounting exams, so I had to take them again during summer. With some help and hard work, I passed these and entered my second year! But then, every semester went very well and I never had to retake any exam until the end!
2019 – Last months of my studies – my Bachelor Thesis
This was a challenge! 360h to dedicate to a specific topic, having strict rules to respect, a plan to stick by and a pretty tight deadline, all while still having regular courses and a few exams. It went well though, I successfully succeeded and I feel like it was important to go through this and know that I was able to complete such a thesis on my own! You know, that’s the kind of work that makes you proud 🙂
And that’s pretty much where my educational path stops, at least for the moment!
Today, December 2019
As for now, I’m in London since October 2019, with the aim to start my career in the fashion industry! Working abroad after my studies is something I’ve always dreamt of and I’ll “fight” to make this dream come true just like I did to get where I am today!