Preface

CONFIDENCE. On the verge of my 30th birthday, I decided a blog was way over due. After all, with all of the life changes that had occurred since my last birthday freak out (25...the quarter life crisis as I called it), it only felt fitting to finally sit down and just write. Write about the things I am passionate about. Share with the world (or whoever deems my blog worthy enough to follow), and hopefully inspire as well as continue to BE inspired. Most importantly, the latter.

The last five years have been a world wind. Recovering from one dating disaster and falling into another one, to focusing on myself and figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, to quitting a good and stable post college job to pursue my dreams of a new career, to meeting my now husband on a crazy and romantic filled journey, to relocating to a new city, discovering new things both in my new surroundings as well as about myself (that I thought I had already figured out in the last go around), to job hopping in what seemed like 17 different jobs with 17 ridiculous bosses (more on that, one day), to getting engaged and planning a wedding, to get married and turning...30. THIRTY. Three-Zero. Nope, no matter how you say it, it remains the same.

So here I am, at the very tippy end of my 20's. And what is the most important lesson I have learned entering this new decade in life? More important than any other life lesson so far, that continues to shape me and help me evolve in all aspects of my life?

CONFIDENCE.

I may not be at the exact perfect point of where I want to be turning this "grand" number of thirty, but keeping the confidence I have thus far acquired in life, is far better than any numerical figure I could drum up (except one million...as in dollars...yeah, I'd take that figure for shore). Because confidence can really get you far. It can get you to places you wouldn't have thought you could get to. The minute you stop second guessing yourself, and just go for it, THAT is when you have succeeded. Even if the actual endeavor at hand results in the exact opposite of success, you are still one step ahead of that individual next door, who sits around waiting for something to happen, in their PJ's, eating joe joe's and watching The Bachelor. Hey, after 9pm, all bets are off. But the difference between you and PJ's next door, is that you don't feel sorry for yourself. You had a fulfilling and confident day, as to which just happened to end in comfy attire, watching bad television.

This blog is not intended to be some self help mumbo jumbo crap (with all due respect to all of those self helpers and helpees), and if you are still reading, please note this is a one time pre birthday vent, I promise. This blog focuses on the things I am most passionate about...fashion, travel, and food. But not in the typical sense. Everyone and their moms have blogs about fashion and travel and food these days. And there are tons of amazing bloggers and talented people sharing the aforementioned with the world that I myself am always pinning. But what I would like to highlight in my writing is a slightly different POV. I believe that fashion is not just a trendy enigma of who wore what, when and where, but that it is truly wearable art, distinct to many cultures and locales. And that travelling can evoke all kinds of emotions depending on where you are, not just the trendy spot where (insert lame celebrity, no offense) was seen. Fashion, travel and food are part of life and should be admired as such. Lifestyle anthropology, I call it.

And that brings me to the name of this "alleged" blog. Back in September, I started writing what I felt would be a great introduction, and it went something like this...

"blah blah blah, I like to live by the rule of 'don't try unless you know', blah blah blah."

Garbage. Try! Do! Be! Because the truth of the matter is, you will never know, UNLESS you try. So I may not be the biggest expert who went to THAT fashion school, or travelled all around Thailand (everyone has right?), or have eaten the most unique foods - squid brains anyone? BUT, I have enough knowledge and confidence to say, "you know what, I am a maven and you should listen to what I have to say." You might just learn something. Oh yeah, and don't wear heels (more on that later).