I got back to Paris from Milan last night.
I saw some nice models, but to be honest I didn’t find that ‘perle rare’ I’m always looking for. That’s alright…I know the nature of this business. It’s when you least expect it that you can bump right into her. Which is why any scout who’s ‘worth their salt’ is continuously scanning the horizon no matter where they are. Some of my best finds have been in a crowded metro in Paris (Amelie Honore) or backstage of a very small ‘B’ level show in Dusseldorf (Ujjwala Raut).
I had an e-mail today from a high school classmate. I had found her name on Classmates.com and wrote her to say hello and to let her know what I’d been up to since those many years ago.
She wrote back and after saying ‘hi’, her first two sentences were these:
“I would have never thought in a million years you would have chosen a career in the modeling industry. Talk about a tough career choice.”
I think that first sentence is a polite version of “How did you ever become a model?!!” You’d have to have known me back then but her comment makes perfect sense. Let’s just say I wasn’t in the running for Homecoming Queen.
Her second sentence got me to thinking. Was my decision to become a model a tough career choice? I guess you could look at it that way, though I never did. Modeling certainly involves a lot more competition, uncertainty and ego-bruising than many other careers.
But as former top model Kathy Ireland once said, “Sacrifice is not doing what is your passion.”
Amen to that.
While becoming a fashion model is definitely tough at times, not going for what you really love, not allowing what’s inside of you to be expressed would be a lot tougher, in my book. Whether it’s modeling or anything else you really love and desire, the very least and the very most we can do is to try.
If I take the time to become aware of what I really want; if I make the decision to commit to it and pay the necessary price; if I give it absolutely everything I’ve got, then I can say I truly tried. What the outcome will be, remains to be seen.
But the fact is, I will have done my part. And I won’t live in the half-light of ‘what if?’.
There’s a well-known quote by Mark Twain: “Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did NOT do…than by the ones you DID do.”
Opting not to try and ending up with regret–now that’s a tough choice.
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