Maya Moments are random moments from my life. Whether I’m ranting or doing something REALLY cool, no two days are ever alike so I call them Maya Moments. Moments I’ll never live twice but they’ll always leave fond memories.

2011, where do I begin? This year was AMAZING, it’s one thing to dream but each day you’re able to wake up and the things you once dreamed about are now your reality is a wonderful feeling. I’ve decided to share 11 random but very happy moments from 2011

MayaMoment11 “Ambitious Girl”

You guys know I stay motivated and energized. I thought I’d share a few quotes that kept me grounded this year. 

“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want & all that is left is compromise,”

“My picture of my future self was so strong, it made everything that was wrong in my present seem to lose its power” -Max Siegel

“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step, he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road”

MayaMoment10 “Losing My Phone” 

I know this may sound crazy and no one would ever think that losing their phone would be a “happy” moment. I lost my phone two weeks before my college graduation. It contained over 600 contacts filled with people I’ve networked with and so much stuff. If you know me, you know that my cellular device is MY LIFE. Losing my phone taught me to never let material things have that much control over my life. Every move I took was noted in my phone, and although I was crushed that I lost it, it was an eye opener for me. Although I cried, like a baby and even though I got a replacement within a few hours I learned to NEVER let it control me.

MayaMoment9 “Graduation”

May 8, 2011 was a GREAT, GREAT day! I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC. Undergrad was truly an experience. JCSU taught me alot about myself, it forced me to grow up. I hated Charlotte until I realized just how much this city has had my back and the remarkable people here who have had so much faith in me and are just as excited as I am about my future.

MayaMoment8 “222 S. Church”

Two weeks after graduation, I was having mixed emotions about what I really wanted to do right after school. I was able to land a really cool internship. My first thoughts with this internship was to just keep myself busy while I mapped out my post graduate plans. Packard Place was more than just an internship. It gave me an outlook on the entrepreneurial community that I never knew had such a huge impact on the city of Charlotte. I spent 3 months learning and helping develop something amazing. It sharpened my leadership skills and my ability to network in a completely different way. Working with Dan Roselli, Adam Hill & Laura Gennings was a phenomenal experience.

MayaMoment7 “My Mentor, My Friend”

“A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.”

I have a few “mentors” who’ve been very influential in my life. BUT, my sophomore year of JCSU I was “that” girl, the gum popping, cell phone using…non-attentive girl. It took one professor calling me out to make me realize I had so much to learn. 

My mentor, Michelle Horton CEO/Founder of YOUniversity Drive, inspires me to be great, she sees so much in me, sometimes more than I can see myself. This year she’s played a major role in my life and making sure I was on task with my post graduate endeavors. In middleschool being called a teacher’s pet wasn’t cool but when people refer to me as a “Mini-Horton” I take that as a huge compliment. I’m not the person who wants to change lives with anyone but it’s great to have a role model who has done and doing the things that you aspire for your own life. She’s proud of me and I’m proud of her, it works.

I also think God brought her to me at a perfect moment.

MayaMoment6 “CI CI double A”

CIAA is such an amazing time of year for Charlotte, parties, sports and everyone coming together to mingle and network. This year I’ve been asked to help on the planning committee. Such an honor. I get a kick out of being the youngest in the room. This year they’ve trusted me to help facilitate some events this year…wait they’ve HIRED me. Ah! It feels so good to be respected and recognized for what you love.

MayaMoment5 “Friends, how many of us have them?”

2011 was a test of survival, survival of the friendliest. I’ve lost a lot of friends this year and I gained some as well. I believe life is all about relationships and the ability to cherish a life other than your own. I’m thankful for everyone that entered my life this year. Whether you stayed for a season or if you’ve proven that you’re a lifetime friend…you are appreciate.

“I only want friends who I can see in my wedding, god parents to my future kids, invited to my house for holidays, and etc…” @DesSoMajor

MayaMoment4 “I feel pretty, witty and gaaaay”

Ever been searching for something that felt like it was impossible to find, like it just didn’t exist? That’s how I felt for a long time, I was on a quest to find happiness and I felt like I was searching everywhere and I couldn’t find it. I was ready to give up. Like on the outside everyone tells me I have every reason to be happy but I needed to see that for myself. In 2011 God revealed so much to me and it it made me appreciate every living thing and I found happiness in a the most confusing place, in a place that made so sense but it made me happy. For once, nothing else mattered. I realized that being happy didn’t mean I had to be with someone else, I didn’t need certain material things. The ability to be truly happy came from wanting the best for Maya and not letting anyone determine it for me. I was given a canvas and I painted a picture that only I could understand and I titled it…”Happiness”

MayaMoment3 “The Oakley of Boone”

Sooooo July 27th I accepted an amazing offer that jump started my postgraduate career. I became an Assist Account Executive at BooneOakley, an advertising Agency located in Charlotte, NC. Yep, I said it Charlotte. I’m sure many of my peers thought I would run at the chance of not staying in Charlotte after graduation but I see so much potential for my life in this city. BooneOakley has been an amazing place to work. No two days are ever the same. I can’t even consider it work because I honestly get up every morning excited to go to work. There are stressful days but it’s still something I enjoy. I work on the Bojangles’ account and it’s pretty cool to be on the the otherside of a brand. I see consumers in a whole different light. I work with some amazing people. I love that I’m the youngest one there and they see so much in me. Ah! Its great! Truly a wonderful thing to happen to me in 2011, I can only imagine what 2012 has for the agency as a whole and my place with them.

MayaMoment2 “How Does She Do It”

Among the things I’ve accomplished this year I was able to start the ground work with my friend Brandi on creating a new empowHERment movement for women entitled How Does She Do It. This movement is to help inspire women and serve as a gateway for networking and to create fearless dream chasers. How Does She Do It is a blog, a sisterhood and so much more. Stay tuned for the big launch in 2012.

MayaMoment1 “I was here”

I think the ultimate MayaMoment of 2011 was being able to make it through. So many lives have been taken to violence and suicide that it makes the world a scary place for individuals my age and any age for that matter. God’s blessed my life in so many ways and I’m so thankful and excited to see what else he has in store for me. Beyonce’s song I was here is very inspiring and it makes me hopeful for the future and the impact that I want my life to have when its my time to leave this earth.

“I wanna say I lived each day until I died,”

2011, I was here…

I’m learning to believe, I’m worth everything that I want

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I’m still in the running toward becoming America’s Next Top Marketer

@ANTMarketer

…this is should interesting

11. Use this time to work on you. Anytime’s a good time for self-improvement. I know some women need to decompress following a really bad or hurtful relationship, but singleness need not be the sole reason to chase a dream or chip away at a personal flaw. Shouldn’t that just be a part of life, hitched or not?

10. Stop being so picky. A woman wants what she wants. But if expecting a man to have a job, his right mind, some manners, and all of his front teeth — and not the gold kind — makes a gal picky, then guilty as charged.

9. Just pray about it. With tsunamis and floods, hurricanes and storms, and the presidential election coming up, too, I refuse to bother God with the deets of my love life anymore. Unless He just needs a good chuckle. 

8. Is that what you’re wearing to go out? No, actually it’s not. I was just about to change into my man-magnet lace bra top and hot pants.

7. I envy you. I wish I was still single. Can we be honest with each other right here? If you really wanted to be single, boo, you would be. It’s free and available to anybody who wants to have it. Plenty of it to go around. So don’t feign envy at my marital status.  

6. It’s his loss. That might’ve made me feel better when I was in the fifth grade. Maybe a scratch and sniff sticker to go along with the advice would help heal the hurt.

5. Have you tried [insert online dating site here]? I know the commercials are convincing. Just pay your little membership fee and love pops into your inbox. But I can count on one hand how many people I personally know who’ve scored dates with reasonably compatible dudes on those sites, much less a whole relationship. And besides, the guy in the eHarmony commercial is creepy. Talking about he might not be single after their second date?! Yikes.

4. Let me introduce you to my nephew/son/cousin/brother/co-worker/personal trainer/mechanic/dentist/lawyer/butcher/bail bondsman. There are times when two people seem like they would just so totally hit it off that it’s almost stupid to not try to at least introduce them, then sit back and watch the sparks from your romantic handiwork fly. But sometimes folks get desperate — even if you’re not — and all it takes for some lucky dude to become their single friend’s next date is the fact that … well, he’s a dude.

3. Do you go out to places where you can meet men? Where exactly are these fabled places where I can just pluck men like fresh produce off the trees, ripe and ready for commitment? Gimme an address to plug into my GPS. Rare is the woman whose main dating problem is that she’s holed up in her home. We’re out there but, short of having an experience that would make prophets out of The Weather Girls, it’s not necessarily raining men.

2. Stop focusing on it so much and let it happen. Ah, you got me. Here I was doodling “Janelle loves Anonymous” all over my notebooks. I’m a single mother, I own a business, and I’m not lamenting the absence of a husband in my household. It would’ve been nice to be married, yes. But my life’s work is not unfulfilled because I never had an engagement ring slipped onto my left hand.

1. Gasp! You’re so great/wonderful/amazing. Why are you still single? Even I can never think of an answer snarky enough for this one.

For the past four months I’ve been blessed to begin my post graduate career in Advertising at BooneOakley. I must admit that I was the girl who was and still is afraid of success.School was easy, you pick a major and you get a schedule so you knew where you were suppose to be at what time everyday…if you don’t like it you can change it.

Many people would say I was blessed to have found a job in my field so quickly after graduation. I would say, thanks and whisper *if only you knew the half*. Blessed, yes I am but was it easy, HECK NO! Everything happens the way they do for a reason. I missed out on three amazing job offers because:

• I was afraid of moving so far away, alone.
• I was questioned “What if I don’t like the work?” “What if I can’t do the work?”
• I was afraid that I wasn’t ready for this lifestyle.

After, I let THREE, ( when I say three I’m not over exaggerating) opportunities slip right out of my hand. I panniced and thought I’d never get a job. I did what I knew I should’ve been doing from the beginning. I asked God to show me where I really needed to be. If money wasn’t an option and where my potential could really shine.

I got two job offers on the same day, BooneOakley offered me a positon to be an Assistant Account Executive and Harding University Highschool offered me a position to teach Marketing for their CTE students. I can truely say things work out for good for those that love the Lord.

I could not be happier with my decision to accept the offer at BooneOakley. Agency life is not your normal 9 to 5, it’s not the reserved atmosphere of corporate. I come to work everyday happy, there’s never a dull moment, I learn something new everyday, AND I work with some REALLY creative folks. 

They term is career, I call it fun. There are days full of meetings, days where I’m testing iPhone apps, off site doing work…no two days are every alike.

I am Maya J Hicks, an Assistant Account Executive at BooneOakley Advertising.

I prayed hard, and long…when I least expected it,
God showed me that everything I was praying for, I already had.

For that, I am blessed!

“some pursue it, other’s create it…happiness”

—

I’m still in the running toward becoming America’s Next Top Marketer

@ANTMarketer

On Halloween while everyone was out scaring people and stealing candy from little kids, I was treating my taste buds. My friend Brandi asked me if I had ever eaten at Nix, and I hit her with the confused face and said, No. It was really getting to me that I never even stepped into Nix and I pass this place AT LEAST twice a week.

I’m glad I decided to give it a try, I was in a good mood so the first thing I ordered was a glass of Pinot Grigio (my favorite). After I went through the menu about five times, I came to a decision. I decided to try to “Whata Kickin’ Chicken” sandwich. I am a huge fan of ANYTHING buffalo, this sandwich was a hand breaded and fried, tossed with Mike’s Creamy Buffalo Sauce, Pepper Jack Cheese, shredded lettuce, and of course I mad to minus the tomato. Everyone says I should’ve tried the Sweet Potato Fries. I didn’t soooo if you go to, Nix Burgers & Brew be sure to try the Sweet Potato Fries.

This burger is very messy, so if you’re on a date and you are trying to eat “cute” this is NOT the sandwich for you. But, if you’re like me and you understand the importance of if you don’t like me with buffalo sauce all over my fingers, you can’t appreciate me with clean hands (I just made that up), EAT UP!

I’ll definitely be back! I went alone and there were so many handsome guys giving me attention.

SEE ladies, going out alone has it’s perks!

Stay tuned for more of my Foodie Tales

-

I’m still in the running toward becoming, America’s Next Top Marketer

@ANTMarketer

Words can’t describe the feeling I got when I ate at Cajun Queen for the first time Sunday! JoJo and I went back and forth other the menu a few times, we even took advice from a few iPhone Food Applications.

I decided to go with the New Orleans BBQ Shrimp, (my mouth is watering as I type). Our waiter did an awesome job, the BBQ Shrimp is a sauce based dish. The BBQ is in powder form and mixed with butter, beer, and garlic to create the sauce you see above. The jump shrimp are sauteed and drinted in the BBQ sauced and tossed over rice. This dish is very spicy, it made me want to hop on the next flight straight to New Orleans.

We jokingly asked our waiter if the sauce was available for purchase, and GET THIS, the BBQ powder can be purchased at Cajun Queen. The tricky part is getting the rest of the ingredients to create the perfect sauce.

Aside form the amazing food, Cajun Queen has live Jazz playing 7days a week. It’s a great spot for “Date Night” or just another weekend with the gals. You won’t be disappointed.

Cajun Queen, you’ve gained a new faithful customer!

Stay tuned, these are my Foodie Tales

—

I’m still in the running toward becoming America’s Next Top Marketer

@ANTMarketer

One thing I’ve learned during my time here in Charlotte is, there are LOTS of cute neat places to eat. I first discovered Amelie’s Bakery as a student at Johnson C. Smith University. The unvieristy library closed at 11pm (CRAZY RIGHT!?) the nerd I am needed another outlet to study and complete term papers. Someone told me about this French Themed bakery that served food and treats, had free wifi and stayed open for 24 HOURS! I thought I was being “Punk’d!”

On Sunday, October 23rd! My brother Paris Pullen, (of ParisPullen.com) and I went to Amelie’s to meet, share ideas, and to catch up on life. Everyone knows that a can of Coca-Cola is one of the ways to my heart, BUT that wasn’t the only thing that made my heart smile on Sunday. My tastebuds had the pleasure of indulging in a  warm Chocolate Croissant. Who doesn’t love bread and chocolate? I’m sure my calorie counter wouldn’t agree with this snack but it was very delicious.

I love how Amelie’s give me a little taste of France with every visit, and in every bite.

Stay Tuned, these are my Foodie Tales

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I’m still in the running toward becoming America’s Next Top Marketer

@ANTMarketer

 One Buttermilk Pancake w/ Fresh Strawberries & Blueberries! Yummy, and YES it was as tasteful as it looks.

I love breakfast, if I could eat it ALL day, I probably would. Saturday, I took my tastebuds for a ride and we explored a new place that I’ve been anxious to try. There aren’t many places in Uptown Charlotte that offer breakfast or brunch.

I found Cafe Sienna, which is connect to the Holiday Inn Uptown, on my way home from work on evening. The location is right at the corner of S. College and 6th Street. Saturday when I woke up, I knew that I wanted breakfast, so I did my famous Google search, and I also checked out UrbanSpoon to see what the reviews were for this place.

The first thing that caught my attention was the $12.99 breakfast buffet special, I looked over their menu and was quickly hooked. I looked at the clock and it was 10:30am. I panicked because the website said breakfast ended at 11am. I got to the door at 10:53am and I was impressed with my service and the fact that I was still able to make the breakfast buffet.

There wasn’t much food left, but the nice chef created this pancake especially for me!

Thanks Cafe’ Sienna, I will be back!

Stay Tuned, these are my Foodie Tales!

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I’m still in the running toward becoming America’s Next Top Marketer

@ANTMarketer

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, this is so true! As I document my life as a Foodie, the journey of the Foodie Tales begins with one bite.

I’ll document ALL the exciting new foods I’ve tried from different restaurants and dishes that I’ve attempted to make myself.

Stay Tuned, these are my Foodie Tales

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I’m still in the running toward becoming, America’s Next Top Marketer

(cues theme music)

@ANTMarketer