What do you aspire to be?

This is not an aspirational blog. It is a tiny slice of myown reality. Instead of posing in front of yellow taxis on a busy street withtousled hair and stiletto heels, I take photos in front of the same wall of myhouse, doing the same poses, wearing the clothes I actually wore that day,because that is what I’m comfortable with. Instead of a photographer boyfriendwith a fancy DSLR, I use the self-timer of a point-and-shoot digital camera,perched atop of a hand-me-down tripod.Everything I’m wearing here is either hand-me-down orthrifted. The sweater is from an old roommate, and I cut up an old concertt-shirt (Of Montreal, they’re really good live) to sew on the back. Thesunflower dress is thrifted and I bought the sneakers at Winners in high schooland haven’t worn them since then. It’s scary that I’m now old enough toself-reference the styles of my youth.We consume things because we want to be like them. It’s whywe envy Jane Aldridge from Sea of Shoes for her seemingly endless designerfootwear collection. It’s also why we purchase products that are targetedtowards us without fail – because if we buy the product then perhaps we willtransform into the model in the advertisement. It’s ridiculous how badly wewant to escape our own lives to become someone else. If we can just stand ourground and tell our own stories with pride, we will be able to shake off thisdusting of aspiration that has infiltrated the clothes we wear, the food weprepare and the pictures we post on Instagram. No one else is ever going tospeak for you, so when you speak up, don’t do so using someone else’s voice.