And here's what I did.

So after (barely) finishing one year at a first-tier law school, I dropped out to study cosmetology. That's right: I am in beauty school. Tomorrow I will have completed 30 of the 1600 hours my state requires for a license. Go me! (Assuming I don't flunk shampoo. Yes, that's what we're doing tomorrow. Hi, Frankie Avalon!)

I started this blog not so much as a gimmicky "gothy nerdy introverted law student goes to hair school in a sort of reverse-Legally Blonde narrative; hilarity ensues" thingy (although it almost certainly will be that), but as a means of remaining accountable to myself: to stay motivated even when the 11-hour days are killing me, and to learn to manage my free time so I can get back into the writing, knitting, singing, reading, photography, cooking, etc. I'd neglected during law school. I'll post creative goals for each week and try to adhere to them. For the moment, my creative goals remain modest: make my resume look prettier because I desperately need a part-time job, and make my apartment look like less of a crack house and more of a crack home (and myself less of a crack whore and more of a crack courtesan). I may also post about things I think you should read or hear or watch or buy. Why should you listen to me? Because I'm awesome.

Everyone has an opinion about my decision, and frankly I'm not interested in hearing yours, especially if it's "you are totally fucking insane."¹ All I can say for now is that it was not arrived at lightly, and that although right now I'm constantly doubting myself (just because that's what I do) and adjusting to the weirdness of the transition, I believe I will be a rock star at beauty school, just because this is, actually, what I always wanted to do when I grew up. I know it'll take a lot of hard work, but I am more than ready. I will never be happy sitting in a fluorescently-lit cube every day wearing pinstriped suits and counting up fractions of billable hours. I want to live in a Dresden Dolls video. But hopefully not this one:



I have a lot more to say about all that, but I've got to go read about Design Decisions, otherwise known as "How To Conform To Western Beauty Standards." (I also have a lot more to say about that. All in good time.)

¹My mom thinks it's cool; I think she's hoping it'll finally teach me some of the basic social niceties she never got around to because she was working to support our family. Who knows; it might. I've never been the classiest of girls, but I really did not like the person law school was turning me into. I'm done with junior high.