It’s still only February. Better late than never, right?
Before today’s post, the most recent blog post was published in October 2019.
Whoops.
A lot has happened in my life since this lovely existential crisis of a blog post, so I’ll try to give a short and sweet summary of the past few months.
I’ve spent a lot of time writing more personal material offline.
This process consists of me standing over the kitchen counter late at night, sipping wine between free-flowing thoughts and hand cramps, which are caused by digging the pen tip into the page so hard that the back of each page feels like a homemade Braille board.
Although I’ve been investing more time in personal writing, I haven’t felt the need to publish here because I’m not really doing anything spectacular that’s “on brand” for the blog.
Admittedly, my Instagram account—the one personal social network that I do actively maintain—is a bit of a hot mess regarding “on brand” content.
Yes, I know that this is my personal blog and I can post whatever I want, but the primary focus of this space is my personal tie to French culture and travel—it’s hard to write about those things authentically when I haven’t been physically, emotionally, and mentally present in that facet of my life.
I am fully focused on work in New England and graduate school in New York City.
Within the past year, I have changed jobs from working in sales and management at a smaller brand to working in sales and creative at a large department store. My graduate school program is starting to wrap up, but I need to finish one more class then get through my dissertation.
The working title of my dissertation is “From Paris to New York City: Examining Omnichannel Retail Strategy of Heritage Department Stores, Galeries Lafayette v. Bloomingdale’s.” I will be researching and writing through the spring and will present my findings in June 2020. I’m already envisioning my dissertation printed and bound and sitting on my lap, but there’s a lot that needs to happen between now and that moment…
To support my dissertation research, I will be coming to Paris this spring for a week!
I already went on about this on IG TV—I still don’t know how I feel about doing selfie videos, honestly—and I can’t believe that it’s coming up sooner every day.
The primary professional goals of my visit will be to check out Galeries Lafayette’s original flagship and their new flagship on avenue Champs-Elysées and meet up with contacts.
My primary personal goals will be to meet up with friends, visit some of my favorite places, check out new cafés and restaurants that I haven’t been to yet, and shamelessly eat and drink kilos of my favorite things. Above all, I need to take new photos so that I can stop repurposing the ones that I took two years ago!
Now that the catch-up is over with, let’s get into where I hope to be by the end of this year and kick off the new decade…
Write more.
I know that I say this every year, but I really do need to make sure that I’m feeding my soul through this creative outlet. I love fashion, I love styling, I love working with people, I love analyzing and studying the fashion industry, but I know that writing allows me to freely express the best of myself that no one else can control. Exercising that freedom is what grounds me in my own personal reality of knowing myself and understanding the world beyond my own.
Read more.
I’m actually doing a better job of making this goal happen so far. I finished a few books that I was reading in Fall 2019 and I’ve been taking turns poring through printed issues of The New Yorker and The Atlantic.
Take my professional development to the next level.
The last time I went through serious professional growth and development was when I was juggling my full-time day job in communications and my digital marketing and consulting side-hustle with clients in the fashion and wellness industries. I don’t think I have the same stamina to juggle as many job titles—how I made all of that happen is still a mystery to me—but I want to dig deeper into my current skill sets (styling, digital marketing, sustainability) and learn something else. Update certifications? Master the Adobe creative suite? I’ll decide at some point…
Take my personal finances to the next level.
*insert le sigh here* The least sexy goal here, but absolutely necessary to hold myself accountable.
Travel somewhere new.
I’m still daydreaming about going back to California and spending time in different cities that I haven’t visited yet. Also, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Amsterdam would be an amazing trip…and Glasgow… and Cambridge…
Start another blog/website.
Earlier in this post, I had mentioned how I wanted to keep the content on P.S. by Macaron Hoarder strictly about my personal connection to France.
I’ve published some sustainable fashion posts here—France is a strong advocate for sustainability and Paris is aiming to be an eco-fashion capital—but it’s time for me to finally create a designated space for my current work in fashion retail strategy and sustainable fashion. Maybe I can start a blog/website for my dissertation…?
I’m happy to make an appearance back on the blog—would love to hear your thoughts and your own goals for 2020!
New England Parisienne 