I Love Lists

I document much of my life in lists (usually in cute lil' journals with elastics around the side). They're titled things like "TO DO 9/16" or "Questions to ask [insert role model here]". My most recent one was titled "Things I Want to Know More About". It looked like this:
Human trafficking
Current Events
Mental Problems like anxiety
I'm reading this book on human trafficking at the moment and the stuff it describes is beyond what I can possibly imagine. I think one of the things that makes human trafficking stick with me is the fact that so many of its victims are kids, a staggering percentage of which are girls my age who are forced into domestic servitude or prostitution- not to mention the legions of teenage boys who are conscripted into other equally horrific positions. As I get older, it's becoming more and more clear to me how very lucky I am- I can and do worry about the apocalyptic headlines, but what I'm likely to be affected by is not Ebola, but more along the lines of my younger brother calling me "Lumpy" or a day when I have to take the metro instead of get a ride from my mom. I'm privileged enough to be able to sit in my room with my clothes and books and consider the best way to help these people from a secure position. At the same time, it's also easy to feel helpless, like the only way to make change happen is to have money or power or at least the eligibility to vote. When I get older, I'd like to be an investigative journalist, so that I can call attention to the atrocities in the world (boy, there are a lot of them) so they can be fixed. I'm learning more about what needs help on this planet and I feel that I should use all my words that currently go into talking about ballpoint pens or whatever (there are a surprising amount of those words) to assist an individual or a situation somehow. Today is the Jewish New Year and my second set of NY's resolutions (hey, another list!) is as follows:
Learn how to help the world
Learn to not worry as much about the world
I'm young and maybe a little dumb, but I'm going to do my best.

This Came Pretty Soon, I Guess

I felt the need to put words to paper (or rather, to screen) but I'm not entirely sure what to say here. Something about me that becomes very apparent very quickly is that I'm painfully self aware, and right now I am extremely cognisant of the fact that the blogging industry is hugely over saturated and that a lot of people now expect to be the next Tavi Gevinson or Susie Lau or something (she's one of my editorial idols, by the way). I don't really feel like I need to accomplish a ton through this platform besides being able to have a visible body of writing for anyone who wants or needs to see it. Quoting Peter Henderson of Hapsical, "It's one thing to say....that you love fashion and can write, but if you have a body of work online.....it can make all the difference." Another thing that pushed me to start this thing (after 2 YEARS of indecision) was that I feel that despite all the (totally worth remembering) warnings about weirdos on the internet and such, you can find your....tribe, of sorts, through the good ol' world wide web-something I'm definitely still in search of. In a perfect world, this blog would be discovered by people somewhat like myself, who are aesthetically aware but also take the process of gaining knowledge seriously.
A few (less deep and weighty) points about myself:
-I live in Doc Martens (one pair navy, one pair black, both the eight-eyelet models)
-My personal vintagey, heritage-ish collection consists of 1960's books on architecture and theater, old family photos from Europe and NYC, and inherited jewelry from my grandparents and clothes from my mom.
-My favorite books for an extended period of time were the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. they also sparked a desire to be Amish (my poor parents).
-My favorite poem of all time is Imagine Angels by Guillaume Apollinaire, my favorite short story is For Esme- With Love and Squalor by J.D. Salinger.
-My role models include Grace Coddington, Arwa Damon, Eva Chen, and Tavi Gevinson.
-I've realized as I'm writing this that I'm actually quite excited about this new outlet for myself...
Stay tuned.
-CK

We Have to Start SOMEWHERE....

Some of the things I really enjoy are writing, fashion, and looking at the world around me. I have started this blog as a place for me to ramble on about those things for the benefit of anyone who's interested in listening. Most of the content on here will either be written work that I want to tentatively share with the world or just my hypotheses and conclusions about the cultural atmosphere I live in. More soon, hopefully.