{"id":2403,"date":"2016-04-02T18:28:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T22:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/?p=2403"},"modified":"2016-04-11T07:56:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T11:56:22","slug":"blessed-with-love-in-new-milestones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/blessed-with-love-in-new-milestones\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessed with love in new milestones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the biggest milestones in my life was December, 2015 when my son graduated from college with a degree in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing and International Business. The day of his graduation, I was flooded with all kinds of emotions that I still haven&#8217;t been able to process.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"6\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;\"><a style=\"color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/_SyJ3dxXLj\/\" target=\"_blank\">It&#8217;s a big day, so I needed to share a picture with me in it, just because this only happens once in a lifetime. I&#8217;m blessed to have a great son. #fiugrad #fiuclassof2015 #fiualumni #worldsahead<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;\">A photo posted by Blanca Stella Mejia (@micaminar) on <time style=\"font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;\" datetime=\"2015-12-15T01:09:26+00:00\">Dec 14, 2015 at 5:09pm PST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\" async=\"\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was a mixed bag of emotions because just a few months before, I experienced a huge career milestone by getting a job with IBM as a Social Business Manager. I had worked with Microsoft for two and a half years before that as a Community Manager for one of their projects at Microsoft Research. It was creative and fun, but it was a contract through an agency and it ended the beginning of 2015. Right after that, I wondered if I should continue working with the digital agency I had co-founded with a web developer, VizRED in 2009 or go for the corporate job.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While many people in my age have been in corporate for most of their careers and then crave to go on their own and become entrepreneurs, I yearned to have an experience in corporate America. I never pursued it because I was raising my son as a single mom since he was two years old. I worked as a realtor for 23 years until the economic downturn in 2008. \u00a0Working in real estate sales suited me then because it gave me the flexibility to be at home with my son whenever I needed and take him to sports, picking up from school, events, night parties before he started driving at 16 years old and all the things involved with being a mom.<\/p>\n<p>So as I was debating what I should do, \u00a0I made the definite decision to look for a corporate job to fulfill that yearning I&#8217;ve had for many years. \u00a0It took six months of intense effort and I landed the job at IBM in \u00a0June. My first day on the job on July 13, 2015, again through an agency. And now, just over a month ago in February, 2016, I became full time employee. My role has included managing the social content for one of their segments in IBM Systems and launching the social media strategy for Latin America in IBM Systems, a business unit.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"6\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;\"><a style=\"color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BCqh1xrRXGQ\/\" target=\"_blank\">At the Austin office where some of my IBM Systems social team is at! #ibmsystems #ibmer #proudibmer<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;\">A photo posted by Blanca Stella Mejia (@micaminar) on <time style=\"font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;\" datetime=\"2016-03-07T20:02:50+00:00\">Mar 7, 2016 at 12:02pm PST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\" async=\"\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It has been an incredible year of learning and absorbing so much knowledge about all of IBM&#8217;s offerings and huge ecosystem. I feel incredibly blessed that, at this point in my life, I was given the opportunity to contribute my talent and skills I learned in the last eight years in digital marketing to one of the largest companies in the world. You can see some links from my recap of the first IBM conference I attended on my social media blog- <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blancastella.com\/ibm-interconnect-as-an-ibmer\/\" target=\"_blank\">BlancaStella.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Now, going back to all these wide range of emotions I referred to earlier and my son graduating&#8230;. \u00a0I can sum it up in these words: I am grateful to God first and foremost. It wasn&#8217;t easy but I persisted. Everything else that I have done, working with small businesses, my brother and the other million things I did were a stepping stone to this, for <em>my current path.\u00a0<\/em>Your path could be completely opposite than this. What is important is that you are following your heart to where you want to move forward to and trust it. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My son, who is now looking for a job and has seen my whole process of career transformation asked me on What&#8217;s App: &#8220;What do you think made that happen? And I answered him: &#8220;Love in my heart and God guiding me.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2016\/04\/inspired-by-my-son.png?ssl=1\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2408\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2408\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/blessed-with-love-in-new-milestones\/inspired-by-my-son\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2016\/04\/inspired-by-my-son.png?fit=750%2C1333&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"750,1333\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"inspired-by-my-son\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2016\/04\/inspired-by-my-son.png?fit=447%2C795&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2408 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2016\/04\/inspired-by-my-son.png?resize=447%2C795&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"inspired-by-my-son\" width=\"447\" height=\"795\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2016\/04\/inspired-by-my-son.png?resize=447%2C795&amp;ssl=1 447w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2016\/04\/inspired-by-my-son.png?resize=113%2C200&amp;ssl=1 113w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2016\/04\/inspired-by-my-son.png?resize=225%2C400&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2016\/04\/inspired-by-my-son.png?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 What&#8217;s App with my son when I went to my first IBM Conference as an IBMer<\/p>\n<p>I believe that God can guide you when you open your heart and surrender. When you do that, all you can receive is love because God is just that- Love. This includes receiving blessings from His\/Her host of angels. Also, my mom is one of my earth guiding angels who never ceases to pray for me with the most utmost faith. And my son, who motivates me to no end to keep on becoming a better person so that I can inspire him to do the same for himself. \u00a0There are many other people that inspire me and give me love. I am truly blessed with many friends that I have had for a lifetime and many new friends I have met in the last years in my new field of work. For all that, I am a lucky woman and extremely grateful. \u00a0I wish for you all that are reading this that your continued journey in this life is filled with the same- just Love. Because love is the main ingredient that works magic. ;)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Art\u00edculo en Espa\u00f1ol: <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/1RStDxR\" target=\"_blank\">Bendecido con mucho amor en nuevos acontecimientos<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/blessed-with-love-in-new-milestones\/\" target=\"_blank\">Blessed with love in new milestones<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the biggest milestones in my life was December, 2015 when my son graduated from college with a degree in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing and International Business. The day of his graduation, I was flooded with all kinds of emotions that I still haven&#8217;t been able to process. \u00a0 It&#8217;s a big day, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/happy-1-year-anniversary-laurita\/","url_meta":{"origin":2403,"position":0},"title":"Happy 1 Year Anniversary Laurita!","author":"Blanca Stella","date":"August 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Version En Espa\u00f1ol I was fortunate to meet a very inspirational young woman at Blogher. \u00a0Laurita Tellado has a blog called Holdin Out For A Hero. Her mission is to bring awareness to those that have Spina Bifida. We connected right away and took the opportunity to video her to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Inspiration&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Inspiration","link":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/category\/inspiration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":700,"url":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/a-smart-13-year-old-reviews-my-verizon-xy-board\/","url_meta":{"origin":2403,"position":1},"title":"A Smart  13 Year Old Reviews My  Verizon XY Board","author":"Blanca Stella","date":"April 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, at a family barbeque, my sister in law's nephew, Dylan, was happily laying on a hammock and browsing the internet with my Verizon XY Board. So, after testing out some features, he gave me a little video review. This smart 13 year old spoke like an adult describing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Video&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Video","link":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/category\/video\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"XY-Board- Review ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2012\/04\/dillain.small_-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1310,"url":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/inspired-by-my-son-an-interview-with-ana-flores-and-inspire-care\/","url_meta":{"origin":2403,"position":2},"title":"Inspired By My Son ~ An Interview With Ana Flores And  #InspireCare","author":"Blanca Stella","date":"December 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was so happy doing this interview with Ana Flores on behalf of Johnson and Johnson's Inspire Care theme. I love how supportive Johnson and Johnson has been in all these years and being continually present in all our conferences and evolution in our growth in this blogging space. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Inspiration&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Inspiration","link":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/category\/inspiration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2013\/12\/Inspired_by_my_son.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":224,"url":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/definition-of-leadership-an-empowered-woman-with-a-mission\/","url_meta":{"origin":2403,"position":3},"title":"Definition of Leadership ~ An Empowered Woman With A Mission","author":"Blanca Stella","date":"January 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What is the definition of leadership? Meet Monika Mantilla, a \u00a0Latina leader of Colombian descent going full force in a field dominated by men - global finance in New York. She is another \u00a0woman that I met at NHLI and is President & founder of Altura Capital Group. Versi\u00f3n En\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Leadership&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/category\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NHLI Leadership Conference","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1063\/5154940077_3e93b9f39a_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":944,"url":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/life-is-a-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":2403,"position":4},"title":"Life Is A Journey","author":"Blanca Stella","date":"August 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I took this picture of a young girl rowing when I was at the beach yesterday. I used the metaphor of her rowing as a metaphor of how we need to keep moving forward in our life and how important it is to pay attention where we are at in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Motivation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Motivation","link":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/category\/motivation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2012\/08\/life-is-a-journey.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2012\/08\/life-is-a-journey.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2012\/08\/life-is-a-journey.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2012\/08\/life-is-a-journey.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":451,"url":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/empowered-womens-summit-floating-with-the-vibe\/","url_meta":{"origin":2403,"position":5},"title":"Empowered Women&#8217;s Summit: Floating With The Vibe","author":"Blanca Stella","date":"May 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"You know the saying, \"What comes up, must come down.\" That's the law of gravity. \u00a0Well, I am here to tell you that today I attended the Empowered Women's Summit in Miami and all I can say is I am high as a kite. I am floating with effervescent energy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Motivation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Motivation","link":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/category\/motivation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bird-in-the-sky","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/files\/2011\/05\/clouds-and-trees-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micaminar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}