back to school style: dark boho

I started school this week, but it seems like most of the Internet is still in summer! Still, back to school videos and articles have been popping up everywhere. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon with my first post, dark boho style. I made that up. 

All these photos were taken by Serina of Serinaland! We had a really nice time wandering around, you can check out the other photos we took here. 

I love finding new places to shoot, especially when they're in unique, unexpected places. These photos were taken in a laundromat! Seriously envious of that amazing mural.

A few years ago, I tried to paint a mural in my garage. I sketched out an original idea, calculated how much paint I'd need, did a ton of research on what brand of paint was the best, and spent about $200 at Home Depot. I spent all of that summer painting, and then come fall and school, I just put it down.

I never went back to it, it just seemed like too much work to pull out the crusty paint cans, wash off grit from the brushes, and don my old paint splattered top. I see it everyday, and I feel guilty for not finishing it.

I guess it's inertia - once I start a project, I spend the whole day working on it, almost to the point where I'm about to collapse. But then I stop, and don't pick it up for long time.

Sometimes I get a little down about all the things I wanted to start or got halfway through. It gets me a little nervous - what if I spend the rest of my life half finishing things, and never really finding my calling?

First I wanted to be a ballerina. I took lessons when I was very young, though they were more for developing musicality than actual technique. I was impatient to start going en pointe, and when they told me it would take a few more years, I quit, and said I would go back to it. I never did, and I don't have the confidence to dance around in a leotard and tights now.

Then I got into writing for a bit. I kept trying to write novels (I was in grade school, and convinced I was going to be the next big thing), but I'd get a few chapters in, and have no idea what to do with the characters.

I went back to writing more seriously in middle school - no more stories about dogs and cats. I read The House on Mango Street by Sandro Cisneros, and fell in love with vignettes. They remind me of the writing equivalent of impressionist paintings, which are one of my loves as well.

I even had a short stint as an intern at local newspaper, but it wasn't for me. Too much time and energy was spent on finding "the angle" and makings sure I followed AP style, and I didn't have as much freedom to write about topics I actually cared about. Did anyone actually care about new parking laws? Or whether I put periods between state abbreviations? Isn't CA the same thing as C.A?

Apparently not.

Now fashion and photography are my loves. But there's always a nagging feeling, am I good enough to excel at either of these? There's such fierce competition in both fields.

Horror stories of fashion interns fetching coffee for months before being allowed to do "real work" float around, and these are people that have already gone to prestigious art schools!

For photographers, it's tough to make a living. Portraits are a luxury, not a must have, and people only need these for special occasions. Unfortunately, the need for food, shelter, and clothing happens a little more often than prom, graduation, and family portraits.

For now, I've still got time to figure things out. I'm lucky, unlike most people my age, I know I belong in the liberal arts. It's just a question of what exactly, and how I'll get there.

And on that note, here's to a new school year (and more back to school style posts!)

What other styles would you like to see? What would you call this style? What did you want to be growing up? How did you figure out for sure what you wanted to do?

xx

Angelina

p.s. see the some other photos I've taken here!

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