Published in Munaluchi Magazine!

10.29.13 was a special day.  Munaluchi Bridal Magazine hit newsstands, and my name, photo and work was featured and published in Munaluchi Bridal Magazine, the fall/winter 2013 edition alongside several amazing photographers!

I nervously stood in front of my entrepreneur classmates answering questions about my photography business, vision and plans.  At the end of the presentation, I gushed about how I’d met Jacqueline Nwobu, the owner and editor of Munaluchi Bridal Magazine and how one day, I’d love to shoot an editorial for her.

Somehow, that statement was misinterpreted, and the rumor mill turned into, “Petronella is great friends with Jackie and is shooting an editorial for next issue.”  Boy was I stressed!?!  I had met Jackie at the Association of Bridal Consultants New Jersey event, which I’d specifically driven 1 hour to attend because I’d heard Jackie was one of the speakers.  Now my brief 5 minute encounter with her was making the rumor circuit as “we’re best friends.”  As hard as I tried, I wasn’t able to follow-up with each of my classmates to reconcile the rumors.  So I personally felt the pressure to step up my game as a photographer…  I began working hard, studying the magazine layout, images, content and pushing myself creatively so that maybe one day Jackie would notice, and a dream would come true.

So when the 2013 fall/winter issue arrived at my doorstep, I collapsed when I opened the first few pages and saw my name within the magazine masthead.  Even though I knew it was coming, the experience of holding and touching the magazine was surreal.  For a few weeks, it felt like I was living in a parallel universe.  It was hard to believe that what I had once accidentally blurted out during my entrepreneurs’ class had come true.

Flipping through the magazine brought back the vivid memory of when I was still working in marketing.  I would use my lunch breaks to escape the doldrums of working at a large corporate company to peruse bridal magazines and business books at the nearby Barnes and Noble.  One day, I saw this magazine, the inaugural issue and it said “Munaluchi, which is a combination of two African names: one Ethiopian and the other Nigerian and means “beautiful work of God,” and the cover had someone who looked like me.  I thought, “finally” and proceeded to avidly flip through it.  From then on, I purchased every issue and even incorporated it into my first photography video because I believed in the magazine’s mission and hoped one day Jackie would notice the video.

I’m so beyond grateful to be published in Munaluchi Bridal magazine and to personally know Jackie!  I have an engineering and MBA agree and not directly using those degrees  makes my African parents shake their heads in shame (any African child can relate to this!).  So being published in this magazine means so much more than just having my work in print.  It means my parents can proudly boast to their friends about my work, that my dream is REAL and not my parent’s image of their daughter as a starving artist pursuing a “silly hobby.”  I’m challenging myself to be better, greater and to push harder and build a solid business foundation, and it is hard but so worth it.

So I share my story to say your dream is possible and VALID, and that with work hard, planning, building and nurturing relationships, anything is possible.

And oh, by the way, this magazine is dripping with gorgeousness.  The layout is stunning.  So what are you waiting for?!?  Go, RUN to the nearby Barnes and Noble to get your copy of Munaluchi magazine!