Here we go! As new students, we will be introduced to tools that are supposed to inspire us in our design process. The assignment started with a word, transition, and asked us to visualize our interpretation of that word through photography.
Like its English counterpart, the Danish word for transition, overgang, can refer to many different things, including menopause. Of all its various meanings, menopause was what hit me, and I immediately felt old. I knew it was ridiculous, but clearly the nagging self-consciousness about my age was back.
To complete the assignment, we were sent outside in groups to wander the neighborhood — my own neighborhood actually, as I live just a few blocks from the university — and take pictures of anything we thought represented a transition. Our only guidance was to focus on the details around us instead of the whole. After an hour, I came back with 60 photos, which I had to narrow down to five.
As I looked around the classroom, I could see clearly that everybody had their own interpretation of the word; there was no right and wrong answer. We were all coming at it in different ways. I have always tended to see my life in black-and-white terms, and suddenly everything was grey (even literally, as you can see from my pictures)!
I wondered how I was going to be comfortable in a place where there was no right and wrong.
Time to Find the Words
From here we had to work in groups to brainstorm which definition of transitionwe were trying to capture in our photos and then create a mind map to systematize our ideas through words only. I am a little more at home here, as I feel more comfortable around words. But then it hit me! This program was all in Danish, which was going to make it that much harder for me to express myself through words.
Yes, I have lived in Denmark for 20 years speaking Danish every day, but for my entire career I had always written in English. I immediately found myself leaning on English, as I rarely express any form of true emotion in Danish, which is after all my second language. How was this going to work for me?
My Life Is an Ongoing Mood Board
As we sat down to bring the photos and words together, it dawned on me that I have been collecting photos for years, through my travels, my collection of Vogue magazines, my wardrobe and, most recently, my obsession with visiting fashion exhibits. Without a conscious purpose in mind, I had been collecting so much inspiration along the way, and now I saw that I can use all of this to develop a new skillset within the textile and apparel industry.
I had the marketing and business experience, but now it was time to focus on my buried passion for creative design and the construction of clothing. I saw a long journey ahead but reminded myself that the journey itself could be the destination.
Lesson Learned!
I have always had a 5-, 10- and 15-year plan. I rarely live in the moment, as I am typically looking ahead to make the “right” decisions. I set clear boundaries for myself and often think in black-and-white terms. Everything about this education was going to challenge my way of being.
I was going to have to focus on being present, in the moment, and not get ahead of myself. I was going to have to let the journey – not the destination – lead the way. And as hard as that felt, it was also a relief. I had no idea where this process was taking me, but I felt that I was on my way. And I felt that there would be room for exploration and mistakes along the way. This was not only reassuring, it felt like I had finally arrived in a space where I had wanted to be for so many years.
what do you think?