"Fashion is what you are offered four times a year. Style is what you pick out of that fashion...It's what you make of it once you've learned what to accept and ignore based on what looks good on you."
-Lauren Hutton
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
ARM YOURSELF
“Fashion is the armor to survive everyday life. I don’t think you can do away with it. It would be like doing away with civilization.”
-Bill Cunningham, New York Times
Monday, February 14, 2011
ART
“Fashion is the most powerful art there is. Its movement, design and architecture all in one. It shows the world who we are and who we’d like to be.”
-Blair Waldorf, Gossip Girl
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Answering the Call
Last night I attended the annual Pepperdine Associates Dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, one of the nicest hotels I have ever been to! It was quite a swanky event with successful and inspiring people sipping on cocktails and dressed to the nines. Pepperdine donors, faculty, staff, students and other guests attended to celebrate the various achievements of Pepperdine, servant leaders, positively impacting the world around them. The Associates Dinner Co-Chairs opened the evening by sharing about their service experience this past Spring Break with Pepperdine students in Fiji, where they gave sight, in performing optical surgeries, smiles, through doing dental work, and love, as they played with the children and laughed and cried with those who received treatment.
The key-note speaker of the night, Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision U.S., spoke with such humility, passion and yearning. He reminded the affluent audience of the various pangs our world is feeling right now; with the aftermath of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the war in the Congo, the conflict in Burma, HIV AIDS epidemic, hunger, child mortality, starvation, homelessness, etc. He shared some national statistics relating to these unfortunate hurts of many across the globe and emphasized that so many of these problems can be easily avoided and fixed. Everyday 24,000 children around the world die from starvation or lack of proper nutrition. This is completely preventable and unnecessary. Issues can be prevented and remedied by all of us. Stearns evidently tugged at our heart strings, and made us feel guilty about the delicious meal we just ate, as he shared his personal anecdotes relating to his work with World Vision U.S. In a response to the theme of the night, “Answer the Call”, Stearns defined the difference between a calling and a career. A line he said that really resonated with me went something along the lines of this: a career is something you give your life to and a calling is something you give up your life for.
When a Christian is asked the question, “Do you want to follow the will of God and his calling for your life?” the answer is usually an instant “yes!” But when you think about it, do we really want to? Because He will definitely pull us out of our comfort zone and into a challenging task, no doubt.
Stearns really got me to thinking, would I answer the call? Would I really be open to it? Could I give up what I think I want for what He wants? Easier said than done, but I think I’m up for the challenge and even if that means a drastic life change.
Project Serve: New York
Spring breaks in the past have been a time for traveling, tanning, and catching up on sleep. What could be better? Apparently spending a week with twenty rambunctious, misbehaved and energetic kindergarteners in the Bronx is the answer; who knew?
With my Project Serve team of ten Pepperdine students, we traveled from warm Malibu to snow-covered New York City to serve with Shiloh Ministries. We called the Sunday school classroom floors of the Manhattan Church of Christ building our home for the week and woke up early every morning to catch the subway to P.S. 30 Wilton Elementary in the Bronx, with authentic New York coffee and bagel in hand. Ryan, from Shiloh Ministries, briefed us a bit on what we were to expect as we assisted the teachers with their students, but many of us did not realize the emotions and circumstances that we would experience.
When I first arrived at Mr. Lopez’s kindergarten class, I was greeted warmly by all and was instantly accepted and integrated into their lives. That week I helped them learn how to write their numbers, letters and do their reading lessons, while also trying to integrate the importance of sharing, speaking kindly to one another and keeping their hands to themselves. The latter seemed to be the most challenging. Throughout the course of my week there, I learned about the various lives these children lead. Many of these seemingly joyful and happy children had social workers who took them to and from school, or parents who were murdered via drive by shooting and even family members in jail. I noticed that multiple students would come to school wearing the same clothes they had worn the previous day, 90% of the students receive federally funded meals and a large majority of the children, in various grades, had been held back a year or more. Fights would break out in the cafeteria and teachers would send troublemakers to the principal’s office or another teacher’s classroom for the entire day, where they would learn nothing. Half of the students’ native tongue is Spanish and many of them had trouble expressing themselves to and communicating with their classmates and teachers. My heart ached as I learned about these children’s lives and what they endure daily. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. My perspectives regarding teaching, children and education were changed drastically. It was such a rewarding opportunity to work with these children.
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So to all those contemplating what to do with your life this summer, be it an internship at your Dad’s friends’ company, a barista job at your local coffee shop or a cruise to Cozumel, I encourage you to find time to make a difference by serving someone, other than yourself.
But be careful, side affects to serving and giving may include: finding new meaning in your life, reinvigorating your sense of purpose, or experiencing a transformation of your heart.
It’s your call, will you answer it?
With my Project Serve team of ten Pepperdine students, we traveled from warm Malibu to snow-covered New York City to serve with Shiloh Ministries. We called the Sunday school classroom floors of the Manhattan Church of Christ building our home for the week and woke up early every morning to catch the subway to P.S. 30 Wilton Elementary in the Bronx, with authentic New York coffee and bagel in hand. Ryan, from Shiloh Ministries, briefed us a bit on what we were to expect as we assisted the teachers with their students, but many of us did not realize the emotions and circumstances that we would experience.
When I first arrived at Mr. Lopez’s kindergarten class, I was greeted warmly by all and was instantly accepted and integrated into their lives. That week I helped them learn how to write their numbers, letters and do their reading lessons, while also trying to integrate the importance of sharing, speaking kindly to one another and keeping their hands to themselves. The latter seemed to be the most challenging. Throughout the course of my week there, I learned about the various lives these children lead. Many of these seemingly joyful and happy children had social workers who took them to and from school, or parents who were murdered via drive by shooting and even family members in jail. I noticed that multiple students would come to school wearing the same clothes they had worn the previous day, 90% of the students receive federally funded meals and a large majority of the children, in various grades, had been held back a year or more. Fights would break out in the cafeteria and teachers would send troublemakers to the principal’s office or another teacher’s classroom for the entire day, where they would learn nothing. Half of the students’ native tongue is Spanish and many of them had trouble expressing themselves to and communicating with their classmates and teachers. My heart ached as I learned about these children’s lives and what they endure daily. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. My perspectives regarding teaching, children and education were changed drastically. It was such a rewarding opportunity to work with these children.
.jpg)
So to all those contemplating what to do with your life this summer, be it an internship at your Dad’s friends’ company, a barista job at your local coffee shop or a cruise to Cozumel, I encourage you to find time to make a difference by serving someone, other than yourself.
But be careful, side affects to serving and giving may include: finding new meaning in your life, reinvigorating your sense of purpose, or experiencing a transformation of your heart.
It’s your call, will you answer it?
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