I don't believe in "summer break."
On building at full speed, asking for help, and giving myself permission to take up room.
I don't subscribe to the phrase summer break for adults. These past few months, while joy filled has felt nowhere close to a reprieve. And while it hasn't all blurred together (that feeling of frolicking on the beach with daughter-girl is still lingering) time still managed to slip past me faster than I could track it.
More than once I found myself scrolling back through my calendar just to remember what I'd actually done these past couple of months. Which, if I'm honest, is its own kind of lesson: even when you can't quite take a break, make time to slow down and reflect on where you've been.
So let me do just that...
The Room at CCBC
I shared creative wellness with over 25 women from CCBC community college. What stuck with me wasn't the workshop itself. It was watching those women find their way, unprompted, into the things that were actually weighing on them. One young lady got comfortable enough to talk about a hard season with her mom, right there in the room.
I understand that people aren't always ready to share their lived experiences openly... but the hurt still needs a way out and guided somewhere productive. I'll never take the safety people feel in the spaces I create for granted and I'm grateful creative wellness gets to be that container and playground for people.
Uncorked & Adorned — and the Part I Don't Say Out Loud
Around that same stretch, I kicked off a new relationship with Boyd Cru Winery, who now carries the Healing Hardwear collection, and I hosted my first Uncorked & Adorned workshop there. On paper, that's a nice partnership announcement and an opportunity to attract new eyes. Underneath it, though, is so much more.
My intention for this year has been to go deeper: deeper in my relationships, with people, with family, with the organizations I work alongside. And the truth I keep bumping into is this: we were never meant to do this thing called life alone or work in isolation.
There were moments in the past where I could have just… turned to the person right beside me and asked for help. Instead I white-knuckled it, because independence has been my armor for so long it didn't always feel like a choice anymore. I know different now. I'm thankful for the many collectives I am apart of. Each one represents a different facet of my being and becoming.
Black in Business
I also completed the Goldman Sachs Black in Business program this summer, and being counted among a cohort of Black women business owners from across the country is genuinely hard to put into words. What stood out wasn't only the rigor of the curriculum. It was the room. The connections. Women who understood the weight I'd just described above without me having to explain it twice.
July Hit and Didn't Let Up
After graduation, I styled a client for the Essence Festival main stage, shopped for my client and her Mom (they live in Barbados and needed some more options to wear) and I made the very last-minute call to take my brand to Martha's Vineyard for a business showcase presented by WACIF.
And by last minute, I mean the month before showtime 😜
Despite being only a few weeks out from the event, my trusty Virgo research skills pulled up a mansion in Vineyard Haven (four bedrooms, five bathrooms, slept eight) like it was nothing. It wasn't nothing- I was really up googling at 1am.
The Call That Reoriented My Whole Summer
In the middle of all that logistics, I had a conversation that quietly reoriented everything: a call with Vincent Stanley of Patagonia.
I went into that call excited about the partnership possibility, and I found myself doing this thing I do in collaborations: making sure I share the stage evenly. But something happened that made me step back and take a different approach. Vincent told me to lead with my Style Therapy™️ framework.
That conversation recentered me in a way I'm still unpacking. Vincent Stanley was leaning in y'all..asking me questions about my work and the inspiration behind it. Without meaning to, he energized me and reminded me to keep going.
Talk about a summer lesson.
What the calendar actually held.
- July A Fashion & Professionalism session with a Youthworks group, where I learned as much as I taught — meeting each student where their actual career path was instead of handing out a one-size-fits-all suit-and-tie script.
- July The second Style Crawl Meetup at Lisa's Luxury Consignment, which outdid the first one in every way.
- July Sewing classes with my daughter, where we built a pair of pants together for a fashion show, hiccups and all — and where I had to consciously take my mom hat off and just be a student again.
- July The first of a three-part Patagonia series, which pivoted mid-event because of tech issues and turned out better for it. Everybody wears clothes, so everybody had something to say.
- July Goldman Sachs graduation in New York — two full days of programming, plus a little unplanned time to explore the city alone before heading home.
- August Celebrating my sister Lindsay's retirement from the military — and cackling with the group chat the next day when she went straight and got her nose pierced. Quiet Storm may need a new nickname.
- August The actual Martha's Vineyard trip, with seven women under one roof.
- August Judging an Elks beauty pageant.
- August A summer product drop on the 14th that sold out completely.
- August Cheering on my friend Monica as she finally opened the event studio she'd talked about for years.
- August The second Patagonia panel, "Worn Well," with three sustainable fashion voices in the room.
The rest of it, all at once.
Celebrating a New Year
And if this summer taught me anything, it's that I'm done managing everyone's comfort at the expense of my own honesty.
So the only real plan I had to bring in 42 was to be more cringe: less curated, less careful and more myself out loud. We'll see how that goes. 😏
42
Less curated · Less careful · More myself out loud