......................................................................................-- Oscar Wilde

The average person has a life expectancy of 76 years , will experience 3.5 different career changes, and will work for ten employers for a total of 70,000 hours. I've gone through more than a few career "alterations" already, so I'm pretty sure I'm in the black and can finally follow my ever-nagging dreams, thanks.

My own idea of "career" is much like a wardrobe: ever-changing as styles and interests do. I have tried on many outfits thus far in life, but have found myself constantly checking the mirror and my own intuition to see if the garment pieces still fit and flatter, and match my current style and (fashion-)forward thinking. I am currently dragging out those old, dusty 80's neon slouch socks and harmonizing them with my new, pointed toe stilettos. In other words, my past experiences are now suiting themselves into my brave new future: to conquer the fashion world.

I have gone through many transitions in my 24 years: pudgy to thin, tomboy to diva, abandoned to loved, abused to armored, penniless to self-wealthy, quiet to flaunty, gifted to stoner, stoner to worldly-intelligent, selfish to giving, giving to selfish-with-just-cause, admired to hated, hated to an equal divide of the two, public school to magnet,college prep

schoolto art school,art school to photo college, and college to the "adult" world. All "grown-up" would prove no less morphing; from receptionist to advertising director, assistant to executive, liaison to designer, project manager to technology company owner, renter to home owner, home owner to home investor, corporate to passionate, model to photographer, party host to music promoter, promoter to music manager, observer to fashion show host, show host to show coordinator, and coordinator to stylist, I've picked up on an obvious "trend." Despite all of the seemingly millions of transitions that have taken place in my life, I cannot deny all roads lead to what I've always known in my brain and felt in my heart: the one constant that goes through as many evolutions as I do, and is my partner in life is Fashion.

If the clothes make the woman, then I am draped in my exploited soul and passions as if they were all of the pinstripes found on a fat man's suit. My heart beats a different beat when Fashion is among me. My breath quickens, and life suddenly spills into being. If, as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, we are indeed "shaped and fashioned by what we love," then I am thread and fabric; I am fashion.

-- Alyssa Key