By: Najla Alexander
Hello, RLS Media friends and family! I hope you are trying to keep warm as best you can in this crazy cold weather; winter is here!
Personally, crazy weather likes to deter me from completing my tasks. That is not the case with this passionate and driven young woman who understands how to balance a college student's work and a home-based business.
Regarding self-care and beauty, no extreme weather will keep people from looking good from head to toe, especially when it comes to getting their nails done.
As someone who constantly has to write and type, having a nail set is difficult at times as well as pricey, depending on the salon and the location… Especially when all you want is for your nails to look good.
I get the urge to pamper myself every once in a while to feel good, but it's been quite a while since I was able to get my nails done. However, recently, I started to hear from my kid siblings and around town about a highly talented nail tech whose prices are excellent, and who genuinely listens to her customers.
I then decided to take a chance and made an appointment, and as soon as I arrived until the time I left, listening to her, I knew her story was remarkable.
Right away, the environment put me at ease; the nail tech made me feel at home and attended to all my needs by giving me water, offering food, and even giving me a phone stand to hold my phone up while she was doing my nails. All so I wouldn't strain my neck looking down. She wanted to ensure I felt comfortable and listened to what I had to say.
I was extremely happy about the set she completed. You notice right away in the appointment she might take a little bit longer than most nail techs in salons, but it's all due to the attention to detail of what the client has envisioned. She wants to ensure the best results to make sure her customers are happy and made sure, in my case, to not only make them cute but short, making me want to come back every time!
Meet Sinae Vega, a beginner nail tech who is curious about how the human mind works, wants to understand it better, and to help those around her because everyone's mind works differently, she told me.
Whether it's listening to your problems during a nail appointment session or in her future office as a therapist, Ms. Vega is aiming high!
Sinae is a freshman at Middlesex County College majoring in psychology to further her education and discover how the human mind works and what makes everyone work differently through therapy. She wants to truly listen to her client's problems to cultivate a healthier mindset as well as communication.
Even if it's just listening to their day-to-day problems or talking about anything that comes to mind, it will always be free of judgment. Sinae just wants to help someone mentally even by simply listening, just as she does when working on a client's nails.
In my experience, I tend not to know what to talk about in these situations and stay quiet, but without realizing it, she got me to chat about what's going on in my life and how I feel, and answers came out of me naturally. She knew how to pull them from me by simply listening to what I had to say without judgment, making me forget any hardships I might have had.
Hearing the theme song of the TV series Law & Order: SVU in the background gave me a clue into who she was and how she saw her clients.
Sinae wants to know who her clients are because she cares about them. She radiates such warmth and positive energy while focusing simultaneously, showing how much she can balance the work while paying attention to what her clients had to say.
As we spoke more, she told me what she wanted to do as her career: to be a psychological therapist. It made me think how much more of this generation is following their entrepreneurial path to survive than going into the workforce that doesn't care about them to further their education.
"Nowadays, it is very common that a lot of college students are making money with their businesses like clothes, lash techs, hairdressers, photographers, etc., and I have seen a lot of young people pursue passions that make them happy, inspires me to do even better all the time," she said. 
As Sinae put it, more young people are pursuing their passions over the typical workday job where they feel they won't be treated right, and won't make enough to survive in this economy.
So, she noticed that instead of relying on a job that she might hate, she could make money off of something she loves to do and is going to school for in the long run.
Sinae explained, "I think that people have their ways of making money. If it's your own business, that is great, and if you're working an actual 9-5 job, that is also great. So, I say if it's what's best for yourself, it's what you should do. Do what makes you happy, what feels right for you and your soul. Don't let people get in your head or feel like you compete; do it for yourself. Make yourself happy rather than just others."
It's okay to go a different financial route than everybody else as long as you love what you do. Who will stop the younger generation like Sinae from making money right from home? It's a matter of choice, but a choice that should be more encouraged.
So, people like Sinae, who have the drive to achieve so much at a young age, should have support, like other small businesses in my community deserve.
"Always try your best to support small local businesses, free or not; it always helps, and it never hurts to help people around you by supporting them in what they love."
Sinae explained to me that her passion for nails came from her aunt as a young girl: "One day, I was bored at home and kept thinking to myself how much I actually love to do nails. It makes me feel calm and at peace, so I decided to open up my account to see where it could take me from there, and I'm happy that I am slowly progressing with everything."
"Ever since I was young, my aunt got me into doing nails, so I always painted my nails and always had a love for nails. It was not until around four years ago that I started to try acrylic nails. I became very interested in the work process of doing acrylic and continued from there."
The love that eventually turned into 'NailsbyNae,' Sinae's business is located in Carteret, NJ, in Middlesex County.
It can be found on Instagram: @nailsbynaex._, where you can see her work, prices, and messages to book appointments. She hopes to see her clientele grow and her skills increase as time goes on.
Nail Salon prices, amongst almost everything else in the consumer industry, have gone up, where you get close to spending $100 to get your nails done.
Sinae noticed and wanted to be different from the rest because she understood how everything was so expensive and reflected in her prices.
Her prices range from $45-$80 for acrylic nail sets and $25-$55 for gel manicures, and you can inquire about prices for any other style from her page or that can be brought with you.
Sinae prioritizes ensuring that her customers leave happy with their outcome.
Overall, based on her passion for helping people, she combined her love of nails by learning to do better and maintain a balance.
Whether that balance is learning to keep your customers happy by the service you give them or by listening to their problems, Sinae does both.
While attending college, she told me it's really about keeping yourself accountable for yourself and your work because the professors are there to do one job, and it's up to you to ensure you are on track.
She explained that was the real challenge of going from high school to college but learning the discipline to keep herself accountable gave her better skills to progress her business at home.
Glimpsing into this little sliver of Sinae's life, a NJ college student pursuing her passion, helping others, and making income off of it because it's what she loves to do makes me proud to be a part of such a community.
This is a community where stories like hers can be found, and you can see them grow and do what they have always wanted to do in this life.
The future generations are changing the way they think compared to previous ones, and it's exciting to see such things happen in Carteret and what the future of hard workers will look like.
