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Interview with Sam

Q

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN 3 WORDS:

A

Ambitious, creative, introverted.

Q

WHO IS SAM?

A

I’m an awkward and shy person who will surprise you with all the things I do and experience. I consider myself a multicultural, multitalented, multimedia master with a brain so far to the right, that my creativity gets used every day in new and exciting ways.

Q

DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONAL AESTHETIC:

A

I just love beautiful things; things that evoke feelings of nostalgia, romance, and elegance. I’m also drawn to colors, eccentricity, and unique quirks. Not everything I like or make ends up always falling into this vibe, but a majority of the time it will.

Q

YOU MADE A RECENT PIVOT IN YOUR DIGITAL CONTENT. YOU WENT FROM A FOCUS ON TRAVEL TO FASHION. WHY IS THAT?

A

During the pandemic, traveling was not only discouraged, but unavailable. While stuck at home, I still felt the need to create content, so I started dabbling in fashion, without taking it too seriously because I assumed I’d be back to the travel life the moment borders reopened. But as the years went on, I got very comfortable at home and even when I could have started buying plane tickets, I put it lower on the priority list. While I’ll never stop traveling and sharing my adventures, I couldn’t continue to call myself a travel influencer if I wasn’t actually actively going on trips to even create content from, and pulling from my archives was getting repetitive. So fashion is the current niche I feel I am able to work with and maybe that will change again sometime soon, but I am happy focusing on that for the moment.

Q

YOU LANDED A JOB IN YOUR DREAM CITY OF LONDON, BUT DECIDED TO MOVE BACK STATESIDE (NYC). WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WANTED, ENDED UP NOT MEETING YOUR EXPECTATIONS. TALK TO US ABOUT THE EPIPHANY YOU HAD AND HOW YOU CAME TO TERMS WITH THIS REALIZATION?

A

The dream was always to live and work in London, but with visa sponsorship rules, it seemed out of reach. But things loosened slightly enough to the point I could land a position that initially felt like a good move. But a combination of the pandemic still in effect (I wasn’t able to travel as easily as I previously could), the company rescinding their offer to pay for my visa (which put a bad taste in my mouth), and the job I was doing not aligning with my work style (it wasn’t as creative as I was lead to believe), I realized that even though London was where I wanted to be, all the other hiccups weren’t making it feel like the dream I had envisioned. Switching jobs to be able to stay abroad would have been complicated and pricey for both my partner and myself, so I had to accept that returning to the US was what needed to happen. It came after many months of depression and anxiety attacks. It was difficult to admit to myself that my dream wasn’t fulfilling me after 30 years of manifesting it into reality. But my mental health needed to come first, so I made the decision to have London be a place I just visit rather than live, and I was surprisingly at peace with that more than I could’ve ever thought I’d be. Sometimes a dream isn’t really a dream, and that’s okay!

Q

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR THOSE WHO ARE FEELING UNSATISFIED WITH THEIR JOB?

A

QUIT! I am 100% an advocate for leaving situations that no longer serve you. Obviously, not everyone is in a situation where they can leave, but if you’re able to job search or pick up freelance work while transitioning out of your position, it will make you happier in the long run. And maybe the next job isn’t a good fit either, but then you leave that too. You don’t owe anything to a company and they will surely replace you without a second thought, so do what’s best for you.

Q

ARE YOU ENJOYING NEW YORK CITY? HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR FREE TIME?

A

I have a love/hate relationship with New York City. It’s a place where there’s so many things happening so you always have options. But it’s also expensive, dirty, and you must always be on your guard. But it feels like the right place to be at the moment, and making my home into a safe space has helped a lot to make living here again feel happy and the right choice. To make sure I’m making the most of living here, I get involved with comedy and theater. My favorite extracurricular has been taking musical improv classes, which is so much fun to make up silly songs on the spot.

Q

WHERE DOES YOUR CREATIVE INSPIRATION COME FROM?

A

I grew up extremely sheltered, so I had to turn inward as a child to come up with a rich imagination to make up for what I wasn’t able to experience. This imagination never went away, and I continue to tap into my inner muse every day when it comes to writing, creating content, and crafting new things. Of course, I look around me and try to gain inspiration by using Pinterest, Instagram, and Tiktok to see what else is out there that I can potentially emulate in my own way, but I really like that I can hone into my own mind to find my way.

Q

DO YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOU HAVE REINVENTED YOURSELF? WHY OR WHY NOT?

A

I’ve reinvented myself many times throughout my life in various seasons. In college I was an ambitious hustler making sure to fill my schedule with a million activities. In my mid 20s, I was running around London and New York, brushing elbows with celebrities in an attempt to become a publicist. In my late 20s, I was hopping around the world in a new country every month making my way into travel influencing. As my 30s arrived and the pandemic took hold, I chimed into my elder millennial era, adopted 2 cats and settled into married life and now have less energy to be a globetrotter or a late night comedian. I think we all change with time and my most recent change came from being forced to be inside more often, which seemed to agree with my natural homebody tendencies. I’m still learning who I am as each year passes.

Q

WHERE CAN WE FIND YOU ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

A

Instagram is @the.sam.aesthetic

Tiktok is @the.sam.aesthetic

Twitter is @thesamaesthetic

Pinterest is @theesamaesthetic