This essay is part of Survive. Thrive. Evolve: How Two Years of the Pandemic Impacted Us Around the World, a global HuffPost project featuring individuals writing about how their lives were affected after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following piece originally appeared on HuffPost France. It has been translated into English and lightly edited for clarity.

When you meet me for the first time, you might do a double take when you see what Im wearing. Thats because for the last year, Ive been walking around Paris in an 18th-century dress to share my passion for history. I play the Marquise des Potins, a time traveler who offers quirky guided tours of Paris, revealing the human side of major characters from the history of France. Theres Voltaires lottery scam, the wacky techniques once used for reviving drowning victims, paintings with fake Egyptian mummies, libertine bets ... between all the money, debauchery, power and religion, its hard to choose which part of Parisian history to explore.

My goal is to dust off culture and show people they can have fun while learning history. The cool part is that tour guests arent just using their ears they go on an olfactory adventure, thanks to perfumes from niche Parisian creators that I pair with tour stops and that allow visitors to immerse themselves even further into the story.

But this wasnt always my life. I made this dream come true during the coronavirus pandemic. When the first lockdown in Paris happened in 2020, I like lots of people had the opportunity to take a step back. There were no more evenings filled with dinners out or shows to see. No more weekend activities to do. All of a sudden, I faced the fact that what I had been doing with my life up until that point wasnt considered essential.

At 28, I told myself that I was too young not to try living my dream, so I quit my job as chief of staff to the CEO of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield to begin my new entrepreneurial adventure. I knew I was in for long hours, endless responsibilities and a lot of uncertainty, but I also knew it would all be worth it if I was working for myself.

After supporting management committees for two and a half years, I now knew how to see the big picture in any situation, and this skill serves me in my journey as an entrepreneur. Because tours have been offered in Paris for decades and theres a lot of competition, I looked for a way to break the rules, and I found it by using costumes, technology and, of course, the unique inclusion of perfumes. My previous experience in digital marketing also taught me how to promote my tours and ensure I get great visibility. My old career also taught me how to automate some repetitive tasks and use timesaving software, which allows me to dedicate myself to what brings real added value to the business and do what I enjoy the most!