PART 3
Submitted by Alicia Springfield CFD, soon to be AIFD!
It felt like waiting for an owl from Hogwarts. As a full-time designer in a small shop, I don’t spend a lot of time looking at my email. Actually, I spend as little time looking at my email as possible, honestly. That didn’t stop me from checking my messages while I was out delivering– like I said, small shop– and there. it. was. The email. THE email!
I took a deep breath and opened it. “Results will be sent tomorrow.” Oh. Not THE email then. The next twenty-four hours were dramatic, y’all. I don’t think I mentioned that I’m an awkward and anxious person, but I feel like some of you may have picked up on that in one of my previous blogs. Fortunately, fellow Candidate Tim Ryan was willing to be my designated freak-out buddy.
The next day arrived, and it DRAGGED. I heard from Tim that emails were going out. I got nothing. I refreshed my inbox like it was going to make cold glue or white roses appear. At 1pm, I saw a lot of people posting results and I still had nothing. I cried out for help, and someone kindly suggested that I check my spam folder.
“AIFD: Your results from the Orlando PFDE” –there it was! I calmly called across the shop for my mom to join me. We’re not just a small shop, we’re multigenerational!
This time I held my breath and clicked. My pulse pounded in my ears and the words all kind of blurred together, but I saw the important ones: “your results were excellent” and “the AIFD® National Membership Committee would like to extend to you an invitation” I did it. I did it!
No more waiting. No more second guessing my designs and choices from the PFDE. No more thinking about what to do differently if I need to test again. In July 2022 at the Roots Symposium, l’ll be joining the ranks of AIFD!
The theme of Roots is especially significant to me. 2022 marks twenty years since I started my AIFD journey. In 2002 I received my North Carolina Certified Professional Florist certification. At NCCPF school, more than one of the instructors suggested that I look into AIFD. Within a couple of years, I attended my first symposium, Prairie School in St Louis. I threw myself into design competitions. In 2019, things clicked for me and I won a local Designer of the Year competition. A few months later I won the North Carolina DoY competition. With that, I believed I was ready for the PFDE and AIFD. My roots are deep, and my journey has been long. I can’t wait to be AIFD.
One last thing! For those small-town florists who do all the things, this is still possible. It’s not easy to make time to study, practice, and test, but you and your shop will be better for it. You’re an important part of our industry, and the AIFD mission. Take advantage of the education resources available industrywide and sign up for the PFDE. You can do it, I know you can!
