There is a brief, excruciating silence where everyone stares at me, and I begin to think this may not have been my finest moment. But then, the miracle.

I am sitting in a lobby in an upper floor of a sleek, black high-rise in downtown San Diego. Nervous. 

By this time, I’ve been searching for my first real job for weeks since graduating college, and let’s just say the job offers haven’t exactly been pouring in. This is before the internet, when research means squinting at a few lines of  tiny print in the help-wanted section of the  classifieds or making a trip to a thing called a “library,” so all I know is that I’m interviewing for an account manager position at a small public relations agency. That’s it.

I clutch my little portfolio under my arm, filled with a few press clippings and sample releases from my college days—none of which, if I’m being honest, are likely to shake the world of public relations to its core. The people who pass through the lobby look polished and important, like straight out of L.A. Law, all shoulder pads and confidence. I feel like someone who wandered in off a Greyhound bus with a suitcase full of dreams and an 8% chance of landing this job—9% if we’re feeling charitable.

Eventually, a young woman calls my name and leads me up a grand circular staircase to the offices of the Diana Clark Company. What happens next is mostly lost to the fog of mild professional trauma, but I vaguely recall interviewing with several people, trying my best to be charming, funny, and the sort of person they might actually want to sit next to at a conference table. Somehow, the long-shot nature of me landing this job loosens me up a bit. And somehow, miraculously, they decide they can work with me. Just like that, I become the newest account manager of DCC.

A couple of weeks and one hasty relocation later, I show up for my first day, nervous but determined to be my best, most affable self. Everyone gathers in the office lobby to for introductions—friendly faces, warm smiles—and then Diana herself turns toward the conference room and says, “Let’s sit down and talk for a bit, shall we?”

And because I am eager and agreeable and perhaps running on too much adrenaline, I enthusiastically say, “Let’s!”—and sit right down.

On the floor.

In the middle of the lobby.

There is a brief, excruciating silence where everyone stares at me, and I begin to think this may not have been my finest moment. But then, the miracle: Diana laughs—a warm, delighted laugh—and plops down on the floor right next to me. And one by one, the others follow suit. Just like that, my first meeting at my first real job takes place on the carpeted floor of a high-rise lobby, and against all odds, I belong. I spent five transformational years being tutored under Diana’s hand.

Fast forward a decade or two later. I reconnect with Diana via this new fangled thing called AOL, then Facebook and the like. I watch her as she pivots from heading her own PR agency for three decades to heading a series of delightful, creative businesses, including Metamorphosis Design, which I’ll let her describe below. 

Thanks, boss, for inspiring me to rethink the way I want to approach Act III. – Eugene

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This sounds crazy, but I feel as though I didn’t emerge from my chrysalis until I was 74. That’s when I finally decided it was time to fulfill my lifelong dream of being an interior decorator and launched Metamorphosis DESIGN. I think of myself as living proof that it’s never too late to start a new chapter.

My mother was an interior decorator. From the age of five, I soaked up every word she said.

Even though all I ever wanted to be was a decorator, when I reached the age to start a career, I chose a different path. I owned a successful marketing consulting firm in San Diego for 31 years. I made a great living, but my 24/7 stress level was off the charts. My employees and I did great work, but I never felt as though I was truly making my clients happy.

After I closed that business — flat worn out by it — at age 55, I started a string of small businesses. I eventually sold the last of these and settled down to retirement.

Then, one day about three weeks before Covid, I was sitting at my computer when a lightning bolt struck. I said to myself, “If I don’t become an interior decorator right this very minute, I never will.”

Now, here I am closing in on 80, and I am happier than I’ve ever been. Making people happy — helping them live in more beautiful spaces — makes me happy. I would say I’m healthier and more energetic now than I’ve ever been before, because I am finally doing what I’ve always wanted to do.

Do I wish I had started sooner? Hell yes! But I tell myself every day, better late than never.

My eco-friendly interior decorating is most often focused on keeping and using what my clients already own to make their space more functional and beautiful than they ever thought it could be. I’m passionate about rearranging, reusing, repurposing, and reimagining furnishings, art, and decorative objects.

Being a hands-on decorator keeps me young. It fills me with energy. It gives me opportunities to meet wonderful new people, many of whom are far younger than I and who inspire me. It also keeps me fit, as I often find myself climbing ladders to hang art, hauling my tool kit from here to there, or lying on the floor to hide cords and cables.

Also, running my own little business, forces me to learn new skills. Most people my age seem to me to be afraid of social media, and here I am conquering it. LOL

No matter how awful our world or my own, personal circumstances might be, I find hope in the beauty I see and the beauty I can create for myself and for my clients.

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Follow Diana’s work at Metamorphosis DESIGN on Facebook and dianasandiegodecorator on Instagram.