I get a lot of questions about my blog’s name. I came up with it in high school. I’m not really sure why. It’s just a play on my name and back then I loved fashion more than anything else. At one point, I thought I wanted to be a fashion designer and live in New York City. It makes me laugh when I think back on that now.
In high school, I went to NYC to look at fashion schools. I realized that while I liked visiting New York, it was not a place I wanted to live. So then, I decided Chicago was the next best place for me. Still a big city, but smaller and cleaner than New York. I decided I would go to school for ‘fashion management and marketing,’ not design. I wanted to work in fashion but I didn’t want to spend my days sewing.
Then, after just one quarter of fashion school, I realized I didn’t actually like fashion that much. So I hastily transferred to DePaul and decided to get a business degree.
After graduating, I slowly started to hate Chicago. The ‘hustle and bustle’ that I had always thought I wanted was starting to wear on me. Partially because saving money had become most important to me. Shopping on Michigan Avenue used to be my favorite part of Chicago. Now I would always avoid walking down Michigan when I was going somewhere and take side streets instead. I hated the crowds and the stores.
I didn’t fully realize how sick I was of Chicago until I visited Milwaukee just for a spur of the moment trip. I saw how much more I would enjoy living in a smaller, quieter, and less expensive place. So I moved. You can read that story here.
I love living in Milwaukee. I really do. I’ve been here for a little over a year now. But now I find myself thinking how nice it would be to live in a small town, in the middle of nowhere one day. A complete 180 from my high school self that wanted to be in NYC.
I’m not sure why I decided to share this story here. I’ve repeated it 1,000 times to every new person I meet who looks at me with extreme confusion when I say I’m from California and no, I didn’t move to Milwaukee for a job. I never liked California and I’m not moving back. Yes, I know that’s weird. I don’t mind the cold and I love the snow.
Is there a lesson to this story? I guess that you really have no idea who you are when you’re 18 and it’s ok to make changes while you figure it out. Or maybe that life is not what it seems on Instagram because most people I meet assume I’m a full-time fashion blogger from Chicago. I’ve thought about changing my blog’s name because fashion actually ranks pretty low on the list of things I care about.
I still enjoy clothes and dressing up, probably more so than the average person, but I would way rather discuss cats, finance, real estate, food, or even politics than what the current fashion trends are. People like to ask me that a lot.
Anyways, thank you for reading my life story. If you’ve got any advice on new blog names or life in general, please leave a comment.
