5 Years

Five years ago, I had just wrapped up my junior year at American University and was home in Orchard Park for a month before my summer internship with Ogilvy started to spend time with my family. I decided in my sophomore year that I wanted a career in political communication and public affairs and in fact, I had a e-note on my Macbook mapping out internships to bring me closer to my goal. Ogilvy was a goal over a year in the making and I was beyond ecstatic to join their team that summer, I had a tremendous experience that’s significantly shaped my post-college professional career. But I’m getting off topic.

While I’m a self-admitted political junkie who loves CSPAN, I have non-political hobbies. I love to cook, try out cocktails, and put together outfits. I needed an outlet for that side of me. So on a whim on my month-long break, I started a WordPress blog. I didn’t read blog or really know anything about them before I started mine. I just knew I needed an outlet and a blog seemed like the best platform.

Incidentally, the name DC Girl in Pearls was a couple of months in the making unbeknownst to me. In January when I applied for Ogilvy’s summer internship, the application had a couple open-answer questions. I breezed by the “Why do you want this internship and what do you hope to get out of it?” No sweat. The next question, “What is your brand essence?,” threw me through a loop. I immediately researched brand essences and read up on what the essences of well-known brands were. How was I supposed to boil myself down to 6 words or less?! How was I supposed to find my essence?! I had visions of me climbing up a mountain in a foreign land to meditate, achieve inner peace and discover my “essence.” But I was on a college campus in DC and would have to figure it out. I imagine I was a bit of a nightmare for the next 48 hours as I pretty much accosted my best friends demanding to know what my essence was. Finally, I came up with “vivacious, pearls-wearing, go-getter.”

Flash forward to May when I decided to start a blog. I signed up for an account and needed to name my blog. Without hesitation, I typed in DC Girl in Pearls and hit enter. And this blog was born!

Thank you so much for following along, your comments, tweets and emails mean the world to me and seriously brighten my day. And thank you so much for sticking with me through this emotional rollercoaster of a spring. But I promise you, content is coming!!

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on the other side 💕

Photo by Abby Paredes