greetings from the land of the hipsters

From first glance, the population of Lewis & Clark College looks like a carefully chosen collection of hipsters.  Seriously, I haven't seen this many Birkenstocks in my whole life.  Almost everyone here looks like they have just walked out of the pages of a Urban Outfitters catalog or from a fruitful day of vintage scavenging.  In many ways, this is fantastic and inspiring, but at first it was a bit disheartening and intimidating.

Many of the freshmen I've spoken to about this has agreed to some extent on this sentiment I bring up:  Everyone here is unique and different...in the same way.  Most of us hail from schools where we were the "original" and "different" kids.  We liked different music, we liked different clothes, and we liked different hairstyles.  Here, it's all up for game.  Let me tell you, there is a rainbow of hair colors, dreadlocks, pixie cuts, and long hippie hair.  I felt pretty cool cutting off ten inches this summer, but now it seems long in comparison.  I would even argue that most of the girls here have shorter hair than the guys.

Here, we are confronted with the harsh reality of being surrounded with people who are just as individualistic as us, if not more.  At first it seemed like a burden, but now I realize that it is the best thing that could ever happen to me and my "individuality", especially since I plan on surrounding myself with a creative environment the rest of my life.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by trying to be the weirdest looking possible (Have you ever had this kind of peer pressure to stand out?  Because this is a new thing to me.  Everywhere else it would be the other way around.), I have chosen to use this unique experience to my advantage.

For years I have tried (with much, much failure) to evolve my style into something more acceptable for my age.  I've banned myself from bows and/or headbands multiple times, only to come back to them with even more ferocity.  In the end, I am faced with the same problem of always coming out looking equal parts toddler and thirty year old librarian.  And you know what?  I haven't met anyone else who can manage to pull that off, not even here.  Is it something to be proud of?  I didn't think so before.  But now?  Now I'm thinking yes.  It certainly is.

After years of confusion, it's taken me one week at Lewis & Clark to settle into this weird, wonderful realization and I feel like I have grown into myself a little more, if that makes sense.  After fighting it for so long, I have accepted my fate as a preschool librarian.  I even wore my "librarian" pin from Fred Flare for the first time today in celebration.

Here's to 3249409328 more self-discoveries!  College is cool like that.

Dress-Urban Outfitters
Cardigan (my new favorite thing ever)-Anthropologie
Necklace-Great-Grandma's
Librarian pin-Fred Flare
Socks-Kate Spade
Mary Janes-Born (I only have one pair of this shoe brand, but they are so well made and comfortable!  I've had them since I got them for my Europe trip and they feel like my "adventure shoes".)