Living Our Dream Job

Ever have a dream that you wanted more than anything to come true? Right now we are trying to make our dream of having our own antique and jewelry store successful. We recently entered the prAna Day Job to Dream Job Contest. The grand prize winner would win $100,000 to quit their day job to make their dream job a reality. 

We may not win but we enjoyed making our submission video. The project gave us a chance to look at where we have been and how each day we are getting closer to making our dream a reality. 

We wanted to share our submission video with you so that you could get a glance into our journey. And just maybe it will inspire you to go after your dreams. 

Life is hard. That’s just the reality when you live below the poverty line and are underemployed. You work tiresley trying to get ahead only to find that the opportunity to get a raise or move up in your chosen career is almost impossible to come by.

Last year, we were paying almost my whole entire paycheck for rent. My wife took on a freelance job to help us make ends meet. She wakes up 5 am each morning to get her work done before our 2 year old and 4 year old wake up for the day. We are exhausted and burnt out trying to get ahead. We even ended up moving in to my mom’s basement last year to help our money stretch further but we wanted more than just barely surviving.

Then one day a light bulb went on. If we couldn’t find the opportunities to be finically stable then we needed to create one. My day job is a jeweler. My daily responsibilities include restoring damaged or broken jewelry, repairing broken clasps, pins, rings, and other jewelry by soldering or replacing broken parts, reshaping and restyling old or broken jewelry.

My twenties were filled with trial after trial. I got a parasite while living in South Africa. My father died from cancer. My five-year-old nephew died in a car accident. I tried to launch my own business but my partner left me high and dry with a debt that I‘m still trying to pay off today.

I have always had the dream of owning my own jewelry store even with my previous failure. We wanted to try one more time to try to make me dream a reality. Higginson Jewelry and Antiques was launched in May 2019.

Since then we’ve only had one customer! The struggle of trying to launch your own business while having to also work a full time job to support your family is often overwhelming. Being able to devote my time without also having to work my current day job would allow us to make our dream a reality instead of just another hardship we have to struggle through.

Right now, my wife and I make do with what we have to try and keep our dream alive.

We meet with clients in my mom’s front room. I work from the garage. And we wake up early and stay up late to run the business. We’re draining our savings as we try to live our dream job.

Our specialty is prairie diamonds and giving new life to broken or unwanted jewelry. The prairie diamond is a symbol of perseverance through hardships.

The early pioneer settlers had very little luxuries and money was often tight. Life was hard! Young pioneers still fell in love and proposed marriage, even in the midst of hardship. The story goes that a young couple wanted to get married. The father of the young woman hoped to dissuade the young man by insisting that he needed to first furnish an engagement ring. If the young man had money for an engagement ring then that was proof he could provide financially for the young woman. The innovative and determined young man came across a horseshoe nail. And by golly, the head on the nail was shaped just like a diamond. The young man went to the local blacksmith and asked him to bend it into a ring. The story tells how the father was impressed with the young man’s resolve and the marriage went forth.

Part of our dream is to sell jewelry and antiques that help remind people that they too could get through hard times. We hope to make our business a testament that hard work and perseverance can help you make a better life despite difficult or humble circumstances. Our jewelry is a testament that living in poverty doesn’t mean a lifetime of broken dreams. We want to give people hope. If we can take an ordinary object like a nail or a broken and forgotten piece of jewelry and breathe new life into it, then maybe others will be able to see that life doesn’t always have to be a struggle or broken.