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In May, I was 22, in Paris, without a care in the world
and decided to do something very out of character for myself.
I had a photographer take my pictures.
It was the words of one of my favorite bloggers,
Lauren Knight AKA Aspiring Kennedy, that ultimately
pushed me to do this photoshoot, as she had done.
To sum it up, she said, "WHY WOULD YOU NOT
HAVE HER TAKE PICTURES OF YOU WHEN
YOU COME TO PARIS??" (her being Stacy Reeves, the
photographer that had taken photos of her and would
end up taking photos of me)
So, despite feeling awkward and hesitant, I emailed Stacy
and set up an 8 AM session with her.
This was the result:
Was it slightly awkward and over-the-top? Yes.
But as I sit here in broken-in jeans, with messy hair
and no makeup on (my usual state of being) looking at these
photos makes me feel a little bit more glamorous.
I'll have these photos for the rest of my life and be able
to look at them and remember the time when I was in 22,
in Paris, without a care in the world.
I left work today feeling…not great.
I felt exhausted, slightly defeated and a bit like a drone.
It is only my second week of work and today I was
letting those negative voices in my head that develop from
what seems to be one's current reality get to me.
I left my office building, got on the F train,
rode it 2 stops and disembarked feeling less than thrilled
about the inconvenient 11 blocks and 1 avenue I had
left to walk before I would arrive home at my apartment.
As I got off the train and headed towards the exit I noticed a
young blind man walking in my direction getting slightly
shoved by the crowd that was migrating toward what is
now the only exit from the under-construction station. The man
was clearly unaware of the construction and a bit confused. Before I could
even process what I was seeing,
another man grabbed both of his shoulders,
gently pulled him out of the heavy flow of humans, and said
"where are you trying to go my man?"
I passed by the scene and continued up the stairs
but then as I got to the next level I saw the man
walking with him up the flight of stairs behind me. The
helpful guy said "alright, I got to catch the train that's coming down
there but if you continue going up 3 flights you'll reach the top."
(yes, this is the Subway station from hell…4 huge flights
beneath the ground)
Just as I was thinking I was the only one seeming
to notice this act of kindness a young woman
walked up and said,
"I'll help you up to the top. It's super crowded right now and a bit hard
to navigate so do you mind if I hold your arm?"
I proceeded in front of them for a bit but
lost sight of them in all the chaos.
I continued on my walk
home feeling completely different than
I had just 10 minutes earlier.
This little bit of kindness that two
people showed a stranger…really inspired me.
(pinterest.com)
I can't promise you many things.
I can't promise you there's a heaven.
I can't promise you that you'll reach all of your goals in life.
I can't promise you there's a God.
I can't even promise you there'll be a tomorrow.
But I can promise you this:
if you look for it and even sometimes if you don't,
you will always find the goodness within others.
I'm aware this sounds ignorantly positive and
irritatingly unoriginal. However,
those who truly know me, know I am really
not always little miss sunshine.
Those of you who do think that...and think
you really know me…don't give yourself so much credit.
I don't go around looking for only the good things
in life and celebrating that like someone on uppers.
I actually quite enjoy discussing and acknowledging the
darkness within our world. Whether it be through
writing or films, I think there's actually a certain
beauty to the dark parts of humanity and
life on this planet that needs to be explored
and acknowledged.
I do, however, believe that with this bad,
there is always a little good.
I believe in karma,
in good energy,
in the power of thoughts and allowing them to be as they are,
in the importance of living fully in each and every moment
and in the ability that each of us has to
impact each other daily.
So, roll your eyes at this post that you
could've been spared and the cliche "message"
I am putting out.
I don't care.
We all choose to live our lives in
different ways and if you like to
only acknowledge the darkness then that's fine by me.
But I came home today and instead of lying on my couch
and responding to my sister's typical question
of how my day was with an unenthused "fine", I
opened my laptop wrote this out and feel energized to
unpack the many bags of clothes that have yet to be
put in their proper place in my new
apartment and...who knows what else?
I got lucky today because I was reminded of
the goodness in others, the potential life has to
surprise you and that
no day is ever fully bad. I needed that reminder
right when it came to me.
Instead of keeping this to myself...
I thought maybe this could be your reminder.
