Vanessa
- Rebecca Bloomfield
- May 6
- 4 min read
Everyone said I should be a lawyer. I was going to school back in New York City. I was barely making it. I was a bike messenger in the mornings, and I was a bookie at night for a restaurant in Harlem called the Butterfly Club. I shouldn’t have been there, because I was 19. But it paid the bills.
Price Waterhouse had a temp job through the university. They said one of their girls was pregnant, she worked at the front desk, and they needed someone for a few months. So I headed down there—full bike gear, messenger bag, real headphones. I walked into the office and talked to the girl at the front desk. I was there for 20 minutes—nothing happened, nobody came. I was like, "This is ridiculous. I have runs I could be doing. I could be making money."
Then something started happening—everyone’s running around in a panic. The woman said there was a conference happening, their translator hadn’t arrived, and the CEO was really upset. I was like, "Translator for what…?" She was like, "No, no, it’s for a South American company…'"I was like, "...Which one?" She said, "São Paulo? Brazil." I was like, "I’m Brazilian."
She sends me upstairs, and I meet this guy. He looks at me with complete disdain. I’m in my full bike messenger outfit. He says, “What are you doing here?” I said, “I speak Portuguese.” He says, “Fluently?” I said yes. He said, “What else do you speak?” I said, “French, Spanish, Italian.” He said, “Sit down.” He had a meeting with his tax clients. They were all from São Paulo, didn’t speak a lick of English. His translator was stuck on a train, so I did the translation for the whole thing.
I was making $12/hour as a bike messenger. He gave me $50K as a starting salary. I wasn’t even there a year before I got scooped up by a family. A family found out about me and doubled what I was making. I was 21, and I was the head of their family office.
I was with that family for ten years. Those ten years were rough. I had to prove myself every single day. I had no degree. I looked very, very young. I’m almost 40 now—imagine—I was 21 then, I looked like I was 12.
In those ten years, I cultivated a reputation for myself. I became the best at what I do. In year 10, COVID hit. My mom calls me and says she’s sick. She said it wasn’t COVID—something else was wrong. I flew up and took her to the hospital. They said she was fine. I said, “Test her for everything. I don’t care about her insurance, I’ll pay for anything.” They found colon cancer—and they had tried to send her home. I never got a bill, by the way.
Anyway—they found cancer, and my whole life shifted. I couldn't be in Puerto Rico full-time anymore. I’m an only child. My mom’s a single mom. I have no family in America. Who’s going to take care of her? What’s going to happen? So I told my boss I had to go. At first he was really understanding, but he hadn’t lived without me for ten years. The first two months were really rough on them. They weren’t happy, but I didn't really care—I was trying to save my mom.
She is tough as nails. She beat it. My mom was in remission by the end of the year.
So I was without a job, living off of savings. I get a call the day before my birthday. A headhunter calls me. She says, “We know about you.” It was a new firm—they called me, I spoke with the CEO. He was like, “We’ve been waiting for you.” I said, “I'm sorry. I'm good at it, but I'll never leave my mother again. I need to find another career.” He was like, “No. I don’t need you in Puerto Rico. Work from home. Take care of your mom.” That was five years ago.
I’m proud that I stuck through it—in my life, and my career, and what I'm doing—because there have been times when I've been like, ‘Should I just give up and work a retail job? A regular 9–5?’ My job is very odd. I’m an executive financial director to millionaires and billionaires. I help CEOs move their businesses to Puerto Rico. I run it all from home. I’m proud of myself that I stuck through it, especially through the rough years. I just kept pushing, and I’m proud of that.”
Big Talk is a free portrait and story session that offers a chance to reflect on meaningful questions while sharing a piece of your story. Stories and portraits are shared here, with the goal of cultivating a sense of belonging and shared humanity in our community and beyond.
Join the Conversation
In collaboration with THRIVE, this project offers free 20-minute portrait and story sessions. During your session, we skip the small talk and explore questions such as:
What is something you are proud of?
What is something you want more of in your life?
Who do you look up to, and why?
What is something you're struggling with?
As a reader, you are already an important participant in this project! If you'd like to join and share your story, make sure you're in my email community where I'll announce the next session, which is around the corner. Grab your coffee or tea, settle in, and let's Big Talk.
Comments