07/28/2026
“It’s amazing how you reinvested yourself,” said a classmate of mine recently. It was warm, genuine and flattering.
I smiled, but the immediate response in my head was, “no, I didn’t reinvent myself, I was brave enough to GROW.”
In 2016, I was hitting brick walls. No matter how hard I tried I felt stifled, defeated.
My life as a farmer then floral designer came gradually after making a very big step - declaring to my peers that I was taking a chance to step outside the unknown because I knew that otherwise my life would never change. Next year will mark 10 years since I closed my entertainment company. I’d dip my toe back in about 2 years later, enough to know that I really was good at what I did, had the respect of people that mattered to me, and that I really truly was done.
In the summer of 2019 is when I finally knew for sure that flowers were my future and I haven’t looked back since.
I’ve ALWAYS been a flower girl. The era I’m in now has roots in my childhood and of course, my first job at 14 at a garden center. Horticulture has been a part of me officially for 30+ years, more if you count my childhood adventures.
For me, Bel Fiore Co. has been about coming back to myself, my true self, my roots, and as a designer, being able to use flowers as a medium to express my Sicilian heritage and core values of loving community and valuing all people.
Flowers have truly allowed me to grow as a person: a friend, a partner, a leader and much more. I marvel at how a “little” flower business could make such a big impact. Who knew a seed, that becomes a flower, that is then gifted to someone, or is a part of a wedding bouquet, or a celebration of life, or an arrangement on your table could be so incredibly impactful?!
Today is my 45th birthday. I’m grateful that I dared to uproot, change course, plant myself somewhere else, water myself and grow. 35 year old me would be really happy about 45 year old me.
I hope my journey reminds others that when you reach a roadblock in life, you don’t have to reinvent yourself, but rather give yourself the permission to change, to uproot, root, water, and GROW 💦 🌱 💐
