Disposable Project

For my final year of my undergraduate degree, I decided to purchase disposable cameras to document this last year. The idea was that I would develop the cameras after the year was over and I'll cry because of how beautiful my friends were, and how happy we looked. The following are some of my favourite shots:

I don't know if you, dear reader, have ever seen How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014), but the opening sequence of the show is a small slideshow of photographs - moments from the gang's time at their local MacLaren's Pub. The photographs are taken with a disposable camera one night at the pub. I want these photos and this project to resemble that. I want to look back at these photos and think of my time with my friends as fun, adventurous and unapologetically innocent.

Youth is the eternal summer, the beer and cheap wine induced smile. The bonafide family of rosy-cheeked friends, made only more beautiful by dim lighting and disposable cameras. Gangly bodies draped by precious clothing and precocious smiles. We drink till 4 in the morning and laugh till 6. A salute to the beautiful girls and dashing boys. 

Pictured in the above are: Tamar, Mishi, Sarah, Charlotte, Sammy, Andrew, Taylor, Shabs, Ross, Ellen, Griffin, Devonte, Nefisa, Sierra and myself.

A New Beginning

A little while ago, I posted the following onto Facebook:

I want to start a blog called My Quarter Life Crisis detailing my trials and tribulations with boys, school, job applications, grad school applications, ~the future~, boys, my friends, alcohol and the rare psychedelic experience. This blog will make me famous and I will become the next Lena Dunham. My blog will be published as a book of essays and then produced as the next big Girls-meet-Sex and the City TV show (even though my life is nothing like Sex and the City).

No, I am not drunk.

That was back in September of 2014. I think I must've been working on a paper. I can't remember, but I was definitely frustrated with something. I was beginning my last year of my undergraduate degree in ~political studies~ and ~philosophy~. I was worried. Fast forward to May of 2015, I am done all my exams and all my papers. I am a month away from getting that special little piece of paper worth four years of sweat, tears, coffee and Monster energy drinks. I have no idea what I'm doing with my life.

Right now, I'm sitting in my favourite coffee shop in Toronto with a cup of coffee, some water and half a sea salt chocolate chip cookie. I didn't apply to graduate school. I don't have a job (yet). I kind of have an idea of what I want to do, but I'm not that sure. I don't feel like I have enough experience to be really picky. I don't feel like the Canadian economy has a magnitude of jobs for me to be really picky. Ideally though, I'll like to do something creative and it would do some good for general society. Maybe the children. Always think of the children.

I've been back in Toronto for one week and two days now. In this one week, I think I got very drunk once and drank enough on a couple of other occasions to be tipsy. I 've been to the Art Gallery of Ontario and a couple of other art exhibitions. I re-downloaded Tinder on a boring Monday or Tuesday morning. I bought a new pair of shoes, a new thrifted dress and a lot of lunches and dinners. I have checked my grades multiple times, but only one has been posted. I've been sketching a lot, painting a bit. I've been wearing shorts and short cut dresses and tops at inappropriate times. My mother has asked me every day, multiple times a day when I am going to get a job. Mother, I don't know.

Life after school has been tricky to say the least, and it has only been a week. I try to remain hopeful and optimistic about the future though. Everyone else makes it, so I should assume that I will too. We will go with that for now. Until I ~make it~, this blog shall serve as my Lena-Dunham-Carrie-Bradshaw pathway to fame (or sufficient funds for survival). If all else fails, perhaps it will be a funny experiment, part of a larger anthropology of a 20-something in these trying decades.

Anyways, I should go back to applying for jobs. Before so, I will declare: this blog will be my very honest recollection of my post-student life. Maybe this will be funny. Maybe this will be pathetic and tragic. Let's see. Stay tuned.

PS. I decided to start this blog in the 10-minute span that was my walk over to the coffee shop.

PPS. Please e-mail job opportunities, money, money for art, and music recommendations to annie.chen@live.com.