My name is Vanessa Mercedes Tafoya. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I was brought up in a part of the city known as ‘Mid-city’ Los Angeles. It’s located exactly there…in the middle of the city. East of the Pacific Ocean and south of world famous Hollywood.
Mid-city is a unique place because it is not the LA most people imagine after watching films that paint a very pretty picture of Los Angeles.
In Mid-city, we grew up in a middle class environment and in a bubble of sorts. We lived the lives our parents tried their hardest to provide us. It was everything but perfect. Yet, it was an amazing place to grow up. We were an extremely diverse community of people that dreamed large.
The schools in our community were not outstanding the way communities with higher incomes were. However, our community elementary school, Marvin Avenue Elementary offered a language learning program for selected students. There were choices and availabilities in French, Spanish, Chinese and Korean.
In my last year of elementary school I was lucky enough to be selected for this program. Perhaps I chose French or it was assigned to me. I cannot remember. Regardless, it was the beginning of a wonderful path for me. At age ten, I began learning French. We started with the very basics but right away I knew I loved it.
I realized it had so many similarities to Spanish and from then I dedicated myself to learn the language....
I continued and persisted with French all throughout school. Finally, at age fourteen I began prematurely planning for university. I always knew I wanted to attend a fashion university… I just did not know which one. I asked myself the question, “What experience do you want?” And it came to me, I wanted to study fashion and perfect my French all in the same place.
So the idea came naturally — Paris, France.
That realization was the beginning of a long, beautiful journey. I applied to a few different fashion institutes in Paris in hopes to get accepted anywhere. I came across a school called ‘International Fashion Academy’, their course list seemed perfect. It touched every corner of fashion marketing any student would need to cover. From the creatives, to business oriented courses, it met all of my interests. What made the school even more perfect is the full scholarship it would offer a lucky student. I knew considering my family’s background, winning this scholarship would take a lot of weight and burden off of my family. So I decided to go for it. I applied for the scholarship and gave it my all.
I prayed about it. It felt like a dream and goal that God Himself instilled in me. It was all I thought about, day and night. I hustled for the scholarship. I did everything I needed to do…Applied for a passport, (that was also my first time), wrote essays, letters, put together a portfolio all to the best of my ability. I felt God whisper to me everyday that it would happen if it were meant to, and I just needed to be patient.
The announcing of the winner of the scholarship was delayed by a few weeks. It was eating me alive as I anxiously waited for the results. Everyday I refreshed my email perhaps a hundred times. Finally, as I left my job at Crossroads Trading Company one night I saw the email…It read “Congratulations, we are happy to inform you that you have been selected for the full scholarship at International Fashion Academy for Fashion Marketing”. My first instinct was to call my mom a.k.a my best friend, and we celebrated that night with pizza from Delicious Pizza and hugs.
From then on it only felt more and more real as time went on. Everyday was just a day closer to that flight to Paris for my first time ever. Little did I know all that was in store for me. I have had an abundant amount of experiences and blessings since the very first day I moved to Paris. It was no easy start, and sometimes it is still a rollercoaster ride…but it has shaped me into everything I am and exactly who I imagined myself to be.
