Rivas balances school with new jewelry line

By Hailey Gay

Gabryella Rivas starts every day at 4 a.m., either going to school, work or expanding her business. Everyday is different for this Renaissance woman, and though she seems effortlessly talented at everything she tries, Rivas remains humble and stress-free. 

“In high school is when I started trying to do a bunch of stuff at once. I got my A.A. and took AP classes, and any sport I could try out for I would do it. Anything they would let me do, let’s do it, even if I sucked,” Rivas said.

Living this ‘busy’ lifestyle in high school caused Rivas to graduate and feel like she was doing nothing when she started college, so she picked up a job at a smoothie shop and let the schedule start to fill from there.

About a year and a half after entering college she became a barista at Kookaburra Coffee, and eventually became a manager at their 207 location, while starting her surfing lessons and jewelry line. 

“I think just letting things be and not get stressed. Every single day when I get home, I think about what I did in the day and what I can do better. Then I map the next day and that is how I keep my head clear,” Rivas said.  

Rivas started making jewelry early in her college career, throughout this career she has worked on expanding her business by providing seasonal clothing and creating new jewelry pieces as styles go in and out of fashion. 

She is also currently learning how to make surf boards by taking her boards to a garage to take them apart, and learn how to fix them. She explained that through learning how to make surfboards herself, she will be able to run the surf shop completely, creating a surfboards, selling her jewelry, and developing a brand. 

“I would go to surf shop and the jewelry was so expensive, so I would just make stuff for myself. My friends would ask where I got my stuff and started offering to buy stuff I was wearing. I was working at Conch House and someone tried to buy stuff out of my ears. So, the stuff that I sell is half the price of the jewelry that you see at the surf shops. It is time consuming to do, but I just want everyone to have cute stuff and it is so expensive to go to these stores,” Rivas said.

Rivas acknowledges that her lifestyle could be seen as ‘too much’ for many people, but she believes that everyone could achieve this life if they just continued to improve themselves. 

“If I didn’t try to practice stoicism every day, I wouldn’t be able to manage. It’s just being levelheaded, like whatever happens to you is just a guide for you. Anything that happens that is bad to you isn’t bad for you, it’s just teaching you. You’re just learning, I feel like a lot of people get caught up in life. I just try to take everything as learning curve. No matter how bad it is it is just trying to make me better, you just go to push through,” Rivas said. 

She doesn’t have any desire to leave St. Augustine. Even growing up here, she constantly finds something new in the local area to do and learn.

“When I was growing up, it was really mellow, we lived on the outskirts of downtown and didn’t have any neighbors for a long time, but the people were really nice.” Rivas said. 

Even though she grew up in a town where surfing is very popular, Rivas didn’t start surfing until 2 years ago, when her friend first took her out to surf. Now, she is teaching surfing lessons and enjoying spreading this joy that you get from catching the perfect wave.

“I went out surfing at least 20 times before I stood up, it was so hard for me to learn, but once I caught one, it just clicked,” Rivas said when asked about the difficulty of learning how to surf. “I do a lot of surf lessons and surf camps. It’s really fun to teach people how to surf, especially when they’re not from Florida. You are used to it, living here, but they aren’t used to the ocean. At first, they are usually freaked out and it is fun to see that.”