I chose a non-traditional way of gaining knowledge through my young adult years; while most of my peers were in college, I was traveling internationally and domestically, doing a variety of internships with organizations whose work I found interesting. Between internships I would backpack, bicycle or motorcycle across country, across borders, across cultures. It was an education rich with life tools and devoid of accolades. (Aside from a weird award I got from a Harley Motorcycle Gang in Pennsylvania that found my cross country trip on a Honda 450 absurd and amazing enough to grant me an award for badassery. They literally mailed me a certificate months after I met them!)

Building a professional career without college degrees or “higher education” has at times been intimidating, but it has also been liberating. The formula society put in place for success never fit me quite right so from a young age I began making my own way through the world and learned that the expectations set before us are rarely put there for our own good. Society may function smoother when a formula is followed, but it doesn’t ensure that happiness, innovation or creativity will blossom. The freedom of having never accepted the “shoulds” is the expansiveness of opportunity to invest in what I can imagine.

The past 5 years of Dillon/Rose has been the blossoming of the imagination and life tools I’ve gained over the years. Last year, I decided to start taking courses through the Gemological Institute of America, the world’s foremost authority on diamonds, colored stones and pearls. I’m halfway through achieving their highest diamond certification.

When I first started selling diamonds I almost felt like I was doing something wrong, like I was sneaking into some secret diamond dealers club and someone was going to find out that I shouldn't be there. I realize that the systems of power often want me to feel that way, like I don’t belong. But not belonging is what has made my life so imaginative and full of exactly what I desire, not belonging has given me the freedom to be a young female in a marketplace of old men offering the most creative designs for engagement rings. Not belonging helps me bring you exactly what you want in an engagement ring instead of the status quo.