GCSEs - Eden Palomba's Story

Like a lot of other teenagers, exams were my ultimate fear, so GCSE’s were incredibly daunting! I revised non-stop, worked really hard and came out of school with GCSE results that opened many doors for me. This being said, knowing what you want to do at the age of 15/16 is super difficult and at the time it felt almost impossible to decide.

From my first ever textiles lesson in year 7, my heart has always been set on a career in fashion and textiles. I applied for a place at college to study a Level 3 Fashion & Textiles course for two years. I was accepted and was so excited thinking, “This is the first step of my career”. Sixth months of college passed and it’s safe to say it really wasn’t for me and definitely wasn’t what I expected!

Not enjoying my course came as a big shock and it was also scary as I had no ‘plan B’ from here. Knowing that exams really weren’t my thing (far too scary and stressful) I started researching for apprenticeships as I knew I worked better when the approach was more ‘hands on’. After a few days of researching, I came across a social media apprenticeship for a travel company ten minutes away from me.

I’ve always known that creativity was my strength and I also have a real addiction to social media, so it’s safe to say that when I found this, I was beyond excited! After the bad times in college, my confidence was at an all-time low but I applied for The Juice Academy with all my fingers and toes crossed. I managed to get accepted onto ‘boot camp’ and met so many people that were in the same situation as me, then finally, after a fair few hours of decision making - I GOT THE JOB!

Pushing myself to try something a little different than I planned has been the best decision I have ever made and because of this, I have so much more confidence and have met people in the process that will be friends for life. Looking back at nervous little me at boot camp day not even thinking that I’d be considered, to me now- working with a range of people, learning new, exciting things is crazy! But most importantly, I’m doing something I love and never thought of doing and it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the lovely people at The Juice Academy helping me and giving me this opportunity.