The size of this picture represents the size of my life choices.
So yeah. I moved to Paris. I got a job that, thankfully, only requires a vague grasp on the French language and… moved. Away. With no return date (except for some round trip tickets to catch The Red Barn at the National Theatre… I'm not a savage).
Bougy and proud.
Ever since I got the job in October (2016), people I've spoken to have had one of two reactions; they've either been excited for me and told me Paris is my spiritual city (whatever that means) OR they have asked, with horror in their eyes, why ON EARTH I'd want to move away from my friends and family and at the START of my career too! I already know what you're thinking so you can go ahead and reverse it. Part of the reason I am not precious fond of EITHER of those responses is that the people who all psyched for me to go are my friends and family. But I digress. It's not that I actively wanted to leave them behind, I just wanted to make a fresh start and where better to do it than here? Paris! I am the exact right age to know that Paris Changes Everything.
Not me, LC
And that's what needed to change. Everything.
A friend of mine, a sweet angel of a boy whom I thirstily insist on calling (one of) my best friend(s) but who probably counts me as an acquaintance (I often reject reality) once told me the real story of the phoenix (no, not that one, get out of here Potter nerds, jk, please stay). "Everyone focusses on them rising from the ashes", he said, "but no one really knows that they set themselves on fire so they can be reborn." Looking back on the last few years (all of the years) of my life, that resonates with me more and more. I have always worked hard and tried to be considerate and, since I'm a regular person, that hasn't always gone super well. So when I turned 25 and things didn't seem to going where I wanted them to go, I set my life on fire. Left a work situation that wasn't working (at the end of my contract, chill out) and set out to rise from the ashes.
Bye bitches.
And that's what I'll be chronicling here. Finding my inner (and, please God, outer) phoenix in the City of Lights. It's all about moving forwards and trying to have fun while I do it. After all, the world will keep turning, and ain't none of us getting out of this alive.
CAIO