Delivering Joy — One Party at a Time

Tiwana Rochelle wasn’t happy with the job she was working, so she took a leap that changed her life. She left her job at the post office to throw parties for kids, playing as characters, and bringing joy to families — and she hasn’t looked back since.

“You got to live life for you. A lot of times people are living life for other people. As long as you can stay true to who you are…everything else will work out.”

Video Transcript

Tiwana Rochelle: Aw, thank you. Happy birthday!

It’s like real emotions when you’re wearing a costume. If you have a child right here looking at you, they’re looking at you like a celebrity. “Oh, it’s my favorite character, I love watching your show.” It’s entertaining. You’re in a costume. Watching all of that go on. I love to see the reaction. I be getting into it.

I hated my job at the time. I worked all day every day. I was never able to spend time with my kids. I was able to do the parties and do the mail carrying at the same time. Said I was going to quit the post office to do the characters. So people was looking at me like, “You gonna quit the post office to do that?” They did kind of make me nervous. Is it going to work out? And I was like 20 years old at the post office so all my coworkers were a lot older than me. So I’m thinking maybe they know something that I don’t know. My husband was really supportive, and we kind of came up with a plan.

One of my first parties, it was like, “Ok, I’m really about to go to the strangers’ party as an outsider to entertain?” So I called one of my friends up. I was like, “Can you please come to this party with me? Just be there.” I became a good actress because they just think that I was just so comfortable. And I think even still, I get nervous going to people’s parties.

If it’s a toy on the floor, I’ll get, literally, get down on the floor with her, throw the little ball with her. I’m literally a darn child. If they have gifts, I’ll hand it to the child, and clap and help them play.

Producer: Does it help having kids already?

Tiwana: I could say, yeah, but really I want to blame everything on my childish, playful personality. It’s like at times I’m more playful and silly than they are so yeah. But I’ll go ahead and say yes, having kids helps me to become a better character.

I always think everything’s going to work out anyway, so if it didn’t, then I’ll figure out something else. I haven’t looked back since, so it all worked out. You got to live life for you. A lot of times people are living life for other people. As long as you can stay true to who you are and everything else will work out. Don’t overthink, just do.