Good morning from New York City. I’m excited. My countdown is officially on. If you’ve just stumbled upon this, I’m leaving New York City for five months, after 18 years here.. I will begin what I call my dance with uncertainty, or you could call it my dance with the unknown. Interestingly, I stumbled upon a quote yesterday as I’m sorting through all of my notebooks. It is by Maria Popova and she said “not knowing is the most vulnerable thing in the world.” I’m sure that is often the case. In my particular circumstances, it’s exciting and it’s sparking my curiosity.

One of the things that’s coming up for me is something I’ve talked about in the past. It’s that to reinforce your courage – or to gain perspective – one of the great things to do is to think of times in the past when you’ve confronted something similar. Just yesterday I was remembering when I had been in Italy for some time and I was teaching English for many years because no one would hire me. Despite the fact that I spoke fluent Spanish and I had a college degree, I couldn’t even get an office job. But I slowly made my way. At a certain point my dear friend Enzo Manes introduced me to Diego Della Valle, the founder of Tod’s, and I got my start in the fashion business.

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