What is the meaning of life? Do you believe in fate?  

That is a question I wonder about daily. 

Hi! I’m Nicole, part of the Retail and Crafting Team of CRZtales. I’m here to tell you about my journey at CRZtales and how it helped my curiosity with the question above.

I left my previous job about 2 years ago. It was an art teaching job, the pay was not bad but I was not happy there. I initially was planning to look for a job immediately but I wanted a break. It went from being a break of maybe a couple of months but almost a whole year passed and I still did not look for one. 

I always wanted to be an artist. I graduated with an art school diploma but due to some issues, I did not do very well in my final year and decided not to further my studies but that might be a story for another time. So, during the year I took a break - I was not just procrastinating. I was working on my own art and had plans to start selling my art but could never find the confidence to go for it. 

After a year of nagging(from my mom about getting a job) and planning that did not come to fruition, I decided to look for a part time job. Just something to get me by and would allow me to still have time for myself and my art. 

I looked through different job hunting sites and came across a listing for retail and crafting part timers at CRZtales. I was intrigued as the description seemed exactly like what I was looking for and I do have some experience with crystals as my mom really likes them and is a collector herself. 

I applied for the job and seeing as I am writing this post, the rest is history. I did get lost in a construction site when going for the interview - I could write about it too if anyone is interested. I went quite deep into the construction site, it’s quite funny.

When I first started, I was assigned a senior and she would onboard me as usual. She taught me things like housekeeping, where we should place things, and some house rules - things that everyone would have to know/follow. Then, I started learning more skills like packing and stringing. 

I had the opportunity quite early to learn straight from our boss, Qi Yun aka LBN. Within my first week, LBN took the time to teach me on how we design the CRZtresor collection. She trusted me with the designs early on and patiently guided me if I had any issues.   

During this time, I was earning money while also having the time to do what I wanted. I was getting more accustomed to the job but there were also times where I felt conflicted. There was a point of time when I had an incident with LBN. I don’t recall my exact feelings at the moment but I did feel discouraged and even thought of quitting. Which is not unusual, whenever I was upset or unhappy - I would think about it but eventually I would quit. I didn’t speak to anyone about what I was feeling and didn’t think of the fact that I could speak to LBN about it.

One day, LBN arranged a meeting for us and we had a talk.

Stay tuned for part 2!