De-Invent

When I left LA, there was a big hullabaloo over moving to a new place and having the opportunity to reinvent yourself. Hi, My name is Vladia and I've spent the last two years as a mime's apprentice and I am really into collecting teeth and quoting Kierkegaard. Apparently, when you move you're supposed to revel in the ability to be whatever or whoever you want to be. I moved to Eugene, and the only people I know here have been in my life for at least 8 years. In the case of one miss Erin Hampton (Grover), it would be approximately 15 years. Yesterday, we met over a hand-picked flight of Oregon beers (including 2 delicious specialty brews by Shawn Grover himself) and caught up on the old times, the new times, and the missed times. It was good times.

Erin remembers when I had "the Cranberries" and "the Clash" scrawled in white-out on my purple jansport backpack, when I thought I was punk rock even though I was a straight-A student who went to church camp as my way of acting out against my liberal parents, when I was too embarrassed to smile because I was the only girl in high school who still had braces. We got in trouble at youth group for wearing layered slips as clothing, we did an entire month's homework in one night over a pot of black coffee (every month), we made dance videos in Elise's living room, we graduated together, we went to college apart, we moved to Eugene and found ourselves laughing and rehashing the old times over beer and mixed meats.

I've never felt the need to reinvent myself and it's refreshing to be around my oldest friend, as we have a special understanding of what made us who we are, a deep appreciation for who we have become, and an insightful optimism about who we will be.

"Be that self which one truly is." -Soren Kierkegaard