The Greatest Thing You Will Ever Learn

In terms of my education, in some ways, I feel I've learned more in the last week than I had in the past four years of college.

And painlessly.

Seamlessly.

If only I could bottle this methodology, I could take it right to the bank.

Why hasn't all my schooling been this insightful?

Do they just save the most useful information for seniors because we need to build up to it, layer semester upon semester to reach a final few months of relevance?

Or am I delusional, imagining I picked up on something of importance in the last handful of days?

♥ Lini.

A Little Too Ironic

Few inspiration images.

Now for something that's been on my mind lately...

When you want something, really want something, how can you know that you actually want it or merely believe you do? How can you figure out what you truly desire? How can you know how badly you want it in comparison to someone else?

I want a successful job in the fashion industry. Partially because I love it, partially as a big fuck you to every professor who doubted me, every person who didn't see what was standing right in front of them, partially because I believe, or once believed, it was my calling, and partially because I believe in the sheer power of design, still. And always.

Design > Money.

But that's all just dandy.

How badly do I want it?

Enough to make it happen?

Enough to counteract luck or misfortune and whatever obstacles come my way?

How long can I want IT before something so much easier begins to look a hell of a lot better?

I mean how many people switch majors and careers?

How many people really do what they want in life?

Am I Ethan Frome, am I an Alanis Morissette song about irony?

Cause sometime I feel like both.

♥ Lini.

You Got the Resolutions, We Just Got Reservations.

I’m sorry, poolside drinking-
margarita rounds.
Shout out to my city though I hardly be in town.

Drake- Thank Me Now.

Long time no blog!

The longer I live in a cold place, the more I know I gotta get out of here.

I see pictures of my friends drinking champagne by the pool, wardrobes stocked with cutoffs and sunglasses.

It sorta kills me.

Look, I know it's not fun and games. But I need to go home, I miss Florida so much. I miss Miami so much. I miss Brazil so much. I miss Milan so much. I miss everywhere I've been except where I am, I hate where I am. Where will I end up?

Long as there's sunshine and poolsides, I don't care what I have to do, I gotta have what I gotta have.

♥ Lini.

Why you can't be a firefighter and an astronaut.

I hate the human need to categorize things. I like to think I see things in a broad sense, not in their most simple terms. A person can be an football player, but they can also be a musician, a French food connaisseur, a collector of bottle caps, and speak six languages. But people just think "Oh, he's into football." There's no possible way he could be any good at that, and do much of anything else, and if he is, he's doing something wrong. In class the other day my professor told us we should fight to maintain our interests. I agree as we get older they tend to narrow them down as we focus on our careers, especially since modern society forces us to "major". I just see myself as so much more then the handful of descriptive nouns and adjectives forced upon me.

The two pictures above are work I've done. Garments, graphics, and photos, 100% all mine. I like them, or did once before someone ripped them apart. By some standards they just weren't good enough. How is that for encouraging expression? How can anyone progress when placed under mounds of pressure and forced to sacrifice all loves but one? You'll end up resenting or at least occasionally questioning the one you choose.

I loved literature once. I gobbled up novels for breakfast. I fantasized living in the worlds of Emma Bovary and Scarlett O'Hara. I used to love recipes, I used to love cooking. I used to wake up and look forward to running a few miles before class. I once could recite the release dates for upcoming movies I couldn't wait to see, back when I loved movies.

Now I can't remember the last time I even read a simple book for leisure, let alone a great work. My meals now largely come wrapped in plastic and if I look tired, I assure you, it's not from a revitalizing morning jog. I couldn't tell you the last time I stepped into a movie theater. Where's the time when you're trying to live up to everyone else's standards for success in order to survive?

So, here's to the death of hobbies and curiosities. I only hope some good will come from complete and total specialization. I also hope this made some kind of sense, 3 am is approaching.

♥ Lini.

A Penny For You, Your Thoughts, and Your Belongings

Sometimes I wonder how interrelated creative fields really are. I also wonder how much love for one's art dies once they choose to dedicate their life to it. Does the frustration of selling-out to succeed destroy the original passion artists feel when they originally choose their paths?

I wonder, on a daily basis, how many people who work as artists in any fashion, sell-out in some small way or another. The other day I got the haircut in the black & white picture above. I have no idea if the cut was the stylist's liking or not. Did it annoy her to waste her skills on something she found awful or strange? Or, maybe she loved it. Maybe she is slowly going insane giving Jennifer Aniston's to every woman who walks in and snipping my mane into a quasi-half bob made her week. I'll never know.

Would a tattoo artist put more effort into a work he found beautiful? If you hired a singer for your wedding and they like your musical selections, would their voice sound better? At restaurants, do chefs try a little harder when a customer orders something the chef finds appealing? Ideally, professionals should perform and create at their best regardless, but I wonder sometimes. I think if someone hired me to do a project for them, I would work harder if I was attracted to their ideas.

I mean, how selfless can any creation truly be? If time is money, and people are obsessed with selling themselves as either an idea, product, or service, than sacrifices will inevitably be made. We all know the customer is always right, but if you like working with one medium, and the public demands another, well... Where does that leave you?

Are broke, unhappy, or lucky the only options for creative people anymore?

For the record, I love my new haircut.

♥ Lini.