Traveling around the world, meeting new people, and documenting every moment of it is the basis of social media. To alumna Nicole Cruz however, she has found that “social media lets people really grow personally and challenge themselves to do things that they’re uncomfortable with.”
Coming from experience, Cruz used to keep her life enclosed in her school textbooks. As she matured, Cruz was able to realize the normality of opening up to others. Cruz’s change gave her numerous opportunities to work in social media managing jobs in places like the Hard Rock. Since then, Cruz now works for herself and has realized that social media is where she can express her true self.
Graduating Pembroke Pines Charter High School (PPCHS) in 2016, Cruz has incorporated the advice she was given at PPCHS into her everyday life. “I feel like Charter taught me [that] if you want to be the best, you have to work hard,” she exclaims. Being that she also graduated in the top five percent, “I still carry that Charter work ethic with me to this day. No matter what I’m doing, I’m always working.”
Furthermore, PPCHS’ staff had given Cruz an immense amount of motivation and inspiration to go out and see the world. “My middle school world history teacher, Mr. Harrison, impacted me the most because he would go through the history with us and then pull up pictures of him visiting that part of history,” Cruz says.
She has recalled this memory so well that Cruz even has organized her own bucket list while also documenting all the trips she has been on. Cruz revealed “I have a goal of visiting 30 countries before I turn 30 years old so I’m [currently at] 11 and I have four more countries I’m going to this year.” This has not only sparked Cruz’s creativity, but has also turned into an enjoyable way for Cruz to make money.
On a similar note, Cruz often finds herself doing any life-style content on well known platforms such as Tiktok, Instagram, and Youtube. In order to produce enough weekly posts, Cruz had to master organizational skills as well as maintaining a productive schedule that works best for her.
For instance, Cruz is able to reward herself with slow mornings since most of her work is done on software. “[Her work is a] mix of, like, content creation and then, like, business owner things,” she reveals.
After she attended the University of Florida (UF) twice and gained enough experience with social media, Cruz learned that “the most challenging part [was] switching from running other people’s social media to running my own.”
When Cruz worked for other companies, branding especially became very hard to manage, “So I had to learn how to kind of not turn off my creativity, but just work around it,” she explains. Additionally, when Cruz messes up with a brand, the company blames her for the errors in the post, and she has noticed that fans also get angry at the brand.
Social media has given Cruz a lifelong amount of memories and connections. One specific time Cruz remembers was when “I was 16 years old [my friends and] I went to a Steve Aoki concert. [A little while later,] when I worked at the club, he performed [there and a few times after so] I got to work with him.” Not only was she able to reminisce on the good times, but also these interactions have helped her advance her career in many ways.
Although Cruz initially wanted to be a teacher, her heart had better plans for her: creating and sharing relatable posts for herself and the world around her to enjoy.
