Chicago has opened my eyes to a lot of new experiences that I am incredibly thankful for. But above all, it has restored a love for fashion that I hadn’t realized I had lost. This past year, I have established a lot in my life. I built strong relationships, developed core values and really began to feel like I was on the path to actually building a career. I put a lot of hard work, dedication and time commitment into my daily schedule. As you can imagine, that meant a lot less sleep and little time to experiment with the new fashion trends of the season.

I know it’s hard to imagine that I could feel unfashionable despite holding positions as a “fashion blogger” and “Style Guru” but I did. I felt like I was getting washed up and my look was starting to feel bland compared to my life. I assumed that maybe this was a trade off for the list of activities that were going to push me to be the #GirlBoss that I dreamed of being. I figured, when I’m older and hopefully dominating my empire, that’s when I can take the time to focus on developing my style. But really that’s not only a poor excuse but a lazy one. And I am many things but lazy is not one of them.

Before I left for Chicago, I did like the Eminem song suggests and began cleaning out my closet. Literally and figuratively. I cut ties with people, things and bad habits that just all around needed to be removed to bring back the positivity that I felt I had lost.

If you don’t like something change it or get rid of it and move on. I don’t like to make excuses for myself because even though I talk a lot about fate, I do believe that most of the great things in my life came to be because I decided they were going to be that way. My success is a mixture of ambition, dedication and a little bit of luck. So it was silly of me to blame my sad attire on things like school work, lack of sleep and being corrupted by sorority life.

Here is where the luck part comes in, being half-way across the country from where I permanently reside has left me with a quite literal giant-step back from my normal life. I am able to really reflect on what I have vs. what I want. Chicago has taught me a remarkable lesson about not only self worth but valuing worthwhile relationships. I feel like by the time I return to Philadelphia, I will still have a lot of closets to clean out but I know who and what I truly value now.

But this post is about fashion. Not so much fashion as style; something I very much value. This summer I have spent a lot of time styling myself and other people. With so little responsibilities, I feel like my past teenage self again (but a much cooler version.)

I have been re-exposed to my love for taking pictures. I didn’t realize how much passion had been missing behind some of my work but I do now. And despite my Instagram, I promise you I have spent more time here behind a camera than I have in front of one.

I am slowly re-developing my style again. My friends have reminded me that my style was based around the idea that I never had one. I fell in love with fashion because it did the same thing that movies, books and music did for me. The feeling that I could be whoever I wanted to be when inspired.

My disappointment in my representation was actually something that I had cultivated by myself not because of my sorority or my work schedule. But because I let my own self branding dictate that theameliaburns had to be one constant and reliable image. That may be true about social media and blog analytics but I fell into the trap that this repetitiveness was something that was necessary for life. I prided myself on being original but I wasn’t following my own values anymore.

So now I’m back to being anyone I want to be again and it’s nice to feel like I have more control over who that person is. I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at some of the multiple personalities that I have displayed in my style recently.

I don’t have any style tips for you. If I did, then you would just be doing everything I just learned not to do. Take some risks, life isn’t high school. None of us are here to vote you best dressed and honestly who the fuck cares who was.

XO

theAmeliaBurns