I walk into the classroom,

There are only seniors and juniors present

Are they sure they put me in the right debate class?

I look at my schedule again

It says Room 214 and I am in Room 214…

I pick a desk close to the back, but not too far from the front

I do know some of the students, but none are close friends.

Suddenly the door opens and the professor walks in

She gives us our first assignment

We are to choose a topic from a hat and pair up with someone

I am paired up with Nicole

I know her

She is really smart and participates so I know I will not get stuck with all the work

I reach in the hat

Great

Our topic is cloning and we are chosen to debate against it.

Next we chose which day we are to present on

I reach into the hat again

This could not get worse

I must present on Monday,

The first day of presentations

Not only do we have a difficult topic,

but we are the first group to present

Already I feel my heart beat faster.

My mother and I start to pack

We are leaving to see my cousins from my mom’s side who live in Germany

My dad is staying because business is too hectic to close the store down for a month

This will be our first trip where the whole family is not going

Just me, my mother, and my grandmother

We are meeting her at the airport

I say good-bye to my dad, excited to leave but sadden that he is not coming with

I get into the car and head towards the airport

Finally after a great search of looking for the terminal, we finally get on the plane.

I cannot wait to see Europe

The last time I was there was when I was five

That was about ten years ago, but because I don’t remember much of it, it feels like the first time I am going over there.

I don’t remember my cousins

I wonder if they will remember me.

Oh yeah

And not only do I not really know these people, but they do not speak English

Thank God my mom does

She was born over there

So was my grandmother

I am the first generation from my mom’s side to be born in the states

I guess that’s kinda cool

At least my mom can be my translator

The plane lands

We are in Frankfurt, Germany

Even though I am just in the airport, I can already see the culture change

Everything is so European

I love it!

We go outside where my cousins will be picking us up.

Two people come over and start taking to us

My grandmother and mom must know them because they hugged each other.

Alas, these must be my cousins

They introduce themselves to me

Of course all of what they are saying is in German

But I did understand their names

We get in the car and head for their house.

I look out the window and from the city,

the scenery turned into the countryside

There are hills and meadows

Farms with wheat and cows

And everyone’s home looks like Hansel and Gretel cottages

Wow

I know I’m not in Orlando anymore

My first day in Europe

I heart fills with excitement.

Someone who I have always been inspired by is Coco Chanel

Her real name is Gabrielle Chanel.

Chanel first started off as a seamstress in France.

The shop she worked at was set up that the girls could work for room and board,

But no one was to venture out of the shop unless for errands,

In other words, no one was to go out on dates and such.

Chanel followed rules, but followed her heart first.

One day an officer came in for an alteration for his jacket

His eyes met with Chanel’s and there were sparks

He invited her to a bar that night were everyone goes,

But she had to refuse because of the rules set on her.

But that night she decided to sneak away and go to this local bar with one of her friends,

Another girl who worked in the shop.

They entered the bar and as soon as she walked in

A gentleman asked her to go on stage and to sing a song

As she walked up on stage, she found the officer who had asked her out.

She smiled and then turned to the band to request a song that she would sing to.

The song was named Coco.

My group of friends and I decide to go to the movies one night

We had no idea what was playing, but we went anyway

When we arrived we went straight up to the front desk to see which films were out

I looked and I saw that the film The Devil Wears Prada

I begged my friends to go and see that one

Finally they gave in and we bought the tickets for the 7:30 show.

We of course had to buy popcorn and a soda,

Along with Twizzlers!

We went to the theater

It was Theater 9!

I found great seats for all of us

A couple rows back from the front of the second level

right in the middle

So the view of the screen was perfect!

The trailers for the other films came on

And then the movie started!

I was so excited when the opening credits came on

The song playing was Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall.

Later I bought that song for my iPod.

While the song was playing and the opening credits were on,

the scene was of all these corporate women getting ready, figuring out which designer they would wear today,

the camera guy especially put an emphasize o all the shoes the women were wearing,

from Dior to Chanel,

Salvatore Ferrgamo,

And even Christian Louboutin.

It was then that I knew I was going to absolutely love this film!

Going to college did sound fun

Many of my friends went to UF,

Or FSU,

Or UCF

Of course some did go to private schools in other states

But to me college was fun yet extremely nerve racking

My friends had each other going college

I was the only one from my circle of friends going to Stetson.

But I must say FOCUS did help, no matter how dorkie people think it is

I was a bit late for the first focus meeting,

But I made friends with my FOCUS leader earlier that day so it was cool.

As I walked in I saw the rest of the students, but none of them popped out at me

They all seemed like townies

How they dressed,

Spoke

And answered certain questions.

Oh, by the way

I was in the FOCUS group that only had commuters in it,

Because I was a commuter also.

Anyway, I then saw this one girl and her bag was so cute

I knew it was a Giani Bini when I saw it

Then I knew she could not have been a townie

It was time for my group to present for my debate class

The pro side was to give their speech first

And then us

After both sides presented, the rebuttal would take place.

On the pro side were two seniors

They were really smart and their report was extremely well presented

I started to get a bit nervous, but after they opened their mouth,

With each word, my nervousness went away,

You could tell that they must have done their report the night before

with it not being that well written

I am a perfectionist,

so I always find flaws or things that I could have added in my presentations

And listening to the pro side made me think a lot of what I was missing in my report

Next it was our turn to give the argument for the against

Ewe brought up some good points, some that even conquered the points brought up from the pro.

But the hardest was yet to come, the rebuttal. 

While I was in Germany, I learned of its culture,

I was hooked on how the Europeans style of living.

When we came home,

Back to the states,

I could not wait to tell my dad of my trip

I begged him that we need to go back,

all of us.

Ever since then, every summer we go over to Europe

A different country each year.

I have visited Switzerland, Holland, Austria, France, Italy,

I have even gone to Canada,

To Quebec and Toronto

But I must say that the UK was my absolute favorite.

Over there, my family and I traveled all through England, Scotland, and Wales

London was the best.

Right when we landed in London, I knew this was where I would want to live.

I got so acquainted with their style of living

Every day in London, I would go to the same pub

Sit at the same table,

And order the same thing

Fish and chips

The people at the pub got use to me,

As if I was a new neighbor who had just moved there and would be living there from now on.

London grew on me;

I got use to it so much that when we had to leave,

I didn’t want to.

Leaving to come back home was like moving to a new house.

As if I had already made a new home for myself there,

Even though I was only there for two weeks.

After Chanel finished the song

The officer came up to her to greet her.

They finally had a proper introduction,

But because of the amazing performance she had given on stage

The officer decided to call her Coco.

They feel in love and she left the shop and moved to in to his estate.

Unfortunately in this love story, the officer cheats on Chanel and she then falls in love with his friend.

As a hobby she makes her own hats and dresses them up beautifully.

Many of the rich take a liking to her designs

Her new lover decides to open up a shop of her own for her to sell her hats.

Time went by and Chanel worked her way from hats to perfume.

When in the store to choose the scent that she wanted she liked aroma from the fifth bottle.

When the owner asked what she would title her new perfume, she asked him the number of it.

He told her it was number five, and that was when she made the genius title for her perfume

She would call it Chanel No.5

Chanel had made a name for herself,

First with the hats, then with perfume, and next with styling peoples wardrobes.

But then the war came, and her lover had to leave her to go and fight

When he came back in one piece, Chanel could not have been happier, but the worst was yet to come.

______________________________________________________________________________

As I was sitting there watching the film, I learned so much about fashion

A subject that I had already started a liking to,

But now fell for it even more with this film.

I knew some of the designers,

Such as Chanel,

Dior,

Gucci,

Prada,

But now I was learning about even the smaller designers that are not as popular over in the states as they are in Europe.

Not only did this film teach me about more designers,

But it also shows its audience of how the fashion industry really works.

This was fascinating to me.

It created a greater interest in me wanting to know more about the industry

Even making it not so much as a hobby,

But perhaps even as a career.

The next day of FOCUS Morgan sat next to me and we introduced each other

I found out that we had much in common…

Fashion,

Family,

Religion,

Classes,

Career,

Films,

Restaurants,

Books,

Music,

And of course our second home is the same…

The mall!

Preferably Millennia!

It was like meeting my long lost sister.

We instantly clicked and have been friends ever since.

W plan almost everything together,

Weekends to the mall, a restaurant, or movie,

Classes for next semester,

Mini trips when we have breaks from school.

We are even planning on studying abroad together in France our junior year!

Our friendship is like Lauren and Whitney from The Hills!

The pro team presented their rebuttal first.

It was actually a relief.

All that they presented was a repetition of their report.

They did not bring up any points defending themselves against our facts.

We presented our side,

Backing up our evidence even more,

And explaining in great detail why the points brought up from the other team were false.

I was shaking so much while I was speaking,

Part because I was nervous,

And the other because I was grown with excitement thinking our side would for sure win!

After each topic was presented and the debate taken place,

The other students had to vote on which side they thought presented its self in the best argument,

Not on whether they approved of cloning or not.

The score was all tallied up,

Now was for the results.

My team received more than half of the student’s votes

We won!

The adrenaline of debate was so exhilarating

After a couple more debates that I had to participate in, I knew I wanted to apply this to my career,

I was asked to even debate with the seniors for their finals

I definitely wanted to pursue this profession,

I mean

Come on

I was good!

It was after that class that I decided that I wanted to become a lawyer.

Not only did I like fighting for my side,

No matter how wrong my opinion was

I also liked the researching for the topic and points that the other team would make,

And how I would turn those points around to favor my side!

Each case was a puzzle to me,

A puzzle that I would always find the way to complete, and win!

When I got back to the states

I researched how someone from the US could live over there

I looked up money exchange rates,

Housing

Etc,

Then I started to look up how I could maybe study over there

Particularly Oxford University

I had toured Oxford,

Which is not very far from London,

And I loved it.

It is a little quaint town that has all the shops you could possibly imagine.

I then looked up the study abroad programs Stetson University offers and found that they had one in Oxford.

My goal as a career is to become an international corporate lawyer,

So I thought studying in Oxford University would make it even better.

Unfortunately, when you have international business as a major,

You must have a language as a minor,

I chose French,

When you have a language as a minor,

You must study abroad in that country for a semester.

Therefore I will be studying in France instead of England,

But I have decided that after I get my law degree, I will find out more about the law firms over in London and see how I could be involved n them.

Being a lawyer over in London.

Sounds fantastic to me!

I just need to do a bit more research

And keep my studies up,

And my goal might be reached!

A couple days after the war,

Chanel’s love went for a drive in one of his old cars,

He loved the old automobiles.

While he was driving, the engine blew and he had crashed.

He had died in a car accident.

It was devastating to Chanel

She really did truly love him.

After that she because extremely independent with herself,

After all

Her heart had now been broken twice.

With her first love for cheating on her,

And now with her second’s death.

Chanel never fell in love again.

She grieved for her lover’s death, and only wore black.

This is why many of her clothes are black and white.

I look up to Coco Chanel because even though she went through a hard life,

She kept working on making her dreams come true…

Being a designer and all

She loved creating new styles

One of her quotes is “Fashion fades, but style remains the same.”

I believe this to be true,

To mean this quote translates into,

One can always try to be “in”,

But it the meaning of being “in” will change over time,

But being yourself never does!

The film showed how the fashion industry is not just glitz and glam,

It is hard work.

Some designers make it big,

While others do not.

Some designers become popular,

But that popularity may soon fade,

It is a cut throat business,

But this film showed how you can make it big without putting others down,

Or stepping on others to get ahead.

That with hard work and a little luck

Can make your dreams become reality!

I have many friends and many acquaintances,

But none that have shared that many interests with me,

Like Morgan.

I feel like I can talk to her about whatever and she always sees where I am coming from.

She understands me.

She has my back whenever I need a true friend,

And with her, I always have a shoulder to cry on.

Of course, sometimes we do get frustrated with each other,

But after all is said and done,

We are still the best of friends.

Friendship like this is a rare thing to behold,

And I feel extremely lucky to have found this type of friendship,

In Morgan!