A Dream in Paris

                           

 

Call me stupid, silly, underachieving, flunky and unapologetic but all I really wanna do is drop out of college and start leading an exciting life.

 

                                

As I've said before, I was suppose to go to Japan. I was supposed to be smacked dabbed for Tokyo Fashion Week, #100Tokyo, #CoolJapan and be on a week long crazy adventure. 12 hours away, working through my entire spring break, only to take a few hours away to enjoy the pre-bloom of Japanese Cherry Blossoms.

 

                          

 

Welp, if you follow me on Instagram, you obviously know that didn't happen. 4 days before take off, my plans got canceled and hastily re-arranged. I got 2 working efforts that paid off somehow someway. I may not be a famous blogger but hell I know how to get places.

 

                       

One of the locations I went to was Paris, France. I went with lexss than a hundred bucks in pocket, a carry-on full of clothes, a hotel reservation, and a bit of crappy French and Creole.

 

 

                        

 

I can read French fluently but I can't really speak it. I kinda assumed that there would be a big Haitian population concentrated in one area. I found out from a random Haitian-French man on the train that no such things exist and unlike in New York, the Haitian population is spread out and their customs are often churned out. Luckily my creole is somewhat similar to the French of Cote-de-Ivory so I managed to get around only speaking Creole.

 

My mission was to attend a few shows, style-spot what Parisians wear, and overall get inspired by Parisans as a whole. I had only 3 days to make this opportunity into a grand scheme. I took a lot of inspiration from my favorite bloggers who had also made the trip. Primarily Yutaki and Michelle Phan.

                            

 

I had to make the best of what little money I had. No food could cost more than 3 euros and I avoided buying drinks in excess. Most meals costed around 10 euros. I tried to refrain from spending more than 4. Subways, Mcdonalds, and Crepe stands were the wave. Who cares if I missed out on authentic French cuisine, I wasn't on a pleasure trip  anyway.

 

I often had to think twice about eating.

Just note that their porta-potties are way better than ours.

                         

 

I honestly don't know why but I have a tendency to stick out everywhere I go. I got stopped everywhere I went. 

 

                                            

I got photographed several times.



People automatically assumed I was French too, in highly populated tourist areas. I don't know if that was common or not but I could sense a bit of annoyance accompanied by my broken French.

 

 

But one things was for certain, things did change after this trip. For one I can't stand people strolling in the city. Unlike in Manhattan, where people do take their time walking, Parisians walk extremely fast and their bags will hit you if you are in their way. A brief "pardon" and the zoom off. 

 

But more importantly, inspiration was drawn upon. For some reason I didn't find France very romantic like I did for Washington, DC. I found it ambitious and aesthetic. Fashion is different from the states and I was lucky to pack clothes that stood in a bit more. The French are proud in their oxfords, bright scarfs and simple silhouettes. Their silhouettes are flowy and portray a bit of fleeting freedom and yet personify their emotions. I was expecting them to wear a lot more black but instead they wore rustic colors and pastels.

 

And love was a matter of identity. Love was unspoken but can be seen. I saw a lot of different couples. I was in awe at the amount of bi-racial couple I saw and the amount of nannys stringing along a fleet of children. Love was personified in their art. Romance was found in their food. Everything showed the romance of the creation and their creator. 

                           

Still, Paris was not a romantic place  per say. Maybe if I was on a pleasure trip I would be saying something different but I didn't feel it. I felt more artistically inspired.

                   

 

What inspired me the most was the Jardin du Luxemburg. We skipped out on Versailles and took on this free alternative. 

                        

 

In France, spring had only just entered with some temps in the low 60s but Jardin du Luxemburg would make you think we were well into April. Flowers in full bloom everywhere, Kids running and playing meanwhile adults enjoyed their jog or conversation and a picnic. 

      

 

 This was the most romantic place I visited in all honestly. It was pure in unusual ways. It was obviously well taken care of.

                    

Now you must be asking. What will I do with this unkept creativity and what was the final product of my trip to France? Welp, you'll find out soon and I can basically totes that you will love it.

Adieu mes amis. S'il vous plaît aller me suivre sur  instagram, twitter, et tumblr pour mises à jour quotidiennes <3

The Next Chapter: College

My co-worker just told me that I really should take pictures of my outfits. Little does she know lol.

Now guys, this a little personal post hopefully either helps you or give you something good to read. 

Now I'm going to throw something at you that might have thought about before. Our lives are full of stories. We combine each one of our stages of life into one huge chapter. Then at some point a chapter ends, and after a bit of commercial advertisement, a new one begins. We always call it the "Next Chapter" where we start fresh. We are anew again and we erase away a few year of stupidity to make room for some more wisdom. 

This, i will not deny, was a hard post to write. I first drafted this up in July O.o. Its hard to make a post like this without finding a source to complain about.

Since I already started college I thought I had to write this post no matter what! 

Last June, against all odds and a lot of fighting with the guidance office, I graduated High School. My senior year was a really tough one because my priorities weren't straight. I was working full time to fuel my unpredictable lifestyle, I was skipping classes too often cuz I was too tired to get up at 6:30am to make it to school by 7:15am. 

But I did it, even though my previously 3.3 gpa took a nosedive. Honestly I lost all direction. I didn't even finish the application process to my 3 choice schools...

I honestly wasnt driven nor did I know what I wanted to do with my life. I thought if I advanced quickly in my stint at McDonald's, I would make it to a high enough caliber that I would skip starting from the bottom in another industry ( which I was wrong). Then I realized a girl like me, was the only person there who was educated enough to not have to take remedial classes and passed all her regents the first time around, why was i wasting my time at a job when my caliber was way higher? 

I quit once I graduated high school, and started at a fashion retail store and an internship, both to show me two different prospects of the path I wanted to go to college for. Retail was really straight forward and was just a combination of skills i already had learned from Marching  Band and McDonald's. My internship showed me PR, running fashion shows, model agencies and etc. The dedication to this line of work was cumbersome but satifying. 

I had to quit my first retail job to find a higher paying job to pay my debt and education fees. So now I'm working at a fashion giant. The hours are long, the work is hard and tedious, but the pay is great and the experience is even better. However without a doubt I'll be working full time and to top that off I'm spending everyday in school with 14 credits (probably will  jump to 20 credits) to earn. 

Wait, what? 

The dream is to do 2 things in my life time career wise.

1. Design and manufacture my own line of ready-wear clothes and open an online and 1 physical store. This is however is the back up, and side job. 

2. Become a strong and distinct writer, with magazine features, blogs, and books. This is why my communication degree will be useful.  This is the overall dream. Everything else will just fall in place later on. 

For dream #2 I started this blog. It's not a niche blog, but I hope to one day develop such a distinct voice in writing I'll be comparable to famous bloggers like Xiaxue. The goal of this blog, is to help others while I try to discover myself as a writer. 

To establish these dreams Im going to apply and keep applying to FIT until I get in. I'm going to work hard this semester so that I can afford to dorm or rent appartment, and transfer to another store in the region. 

I'm going to have to overcome some serious hurdles. 1 being my lisp tends to limit me as in prospects, 2 my outspoken personality tends to get me in trouble. With this new job, I try to stay as politically correct as possible.  As for my lisp, it really makes people think I'm retarded. I, who graduated high school with college credits, have the literary comprehension of grad student, was dropped to level way lower because my th sounds aren't perfect... That's ridiculous. I realized in high school I easily  made myself a superior being because I worked harder to proved that I was smart. In employment and college, i have to start over. 

Yes I lose out on a ton of college experiences, I will struggle a bit and I will have to make some very hard choices but without struggle where is the accomplishment? 

Sometimes things don't go as plan, sometimes dreams aren't more than just that: dreams. People will try to bring me down, people will tell me I will never be able to do it. I don't care for any of that, as long as I try and keep trying until something is achieved.  

I want to "Break Through in the Fashion World" or "Break Through in the Social Media World" What's the title of your next chapter? 

Tell me you next chapter title in the comments below!!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo, @moonangelko