Reality Check In London

Good afternoon travel bugs! I am finally getting my life together after my trip. It has been crazy and hard getting back to my regular routine after a long travel journey. Today I want to talk about my "Aha" moment while I was in London.

Let me begin with this image that you will see below. It may seem normal to you, just a magazine on top of a coffee table at my house but my story behind it begins like this:

It was the beginning of April of 2018. I was sitting impatiently in my airplane seat looking out the window. We had just taken off from Chicago and I was on my way to Arizona on a 3.5-hour flight. I usually bring something to do during the flight but I had recently cancelled my subscription to Spotify so I had no access to my offline music, nor did I bring my computer. As I saw the city of Chicago disappear under the clouds, I noticed it, the airplane magazine that has now been sitting in my living room for the past year. I saw the pink flowers on the cover and thought to pick it up. I was pretty bored so I started reading it.

Inside the magazine there was a small feature about Peggy Porschen bakery in Belgravia, London; it said things like "As Britain's Baker-to-the-stars, Porschen has made cakes for Kate Moss's wedding, and Sir Anthony Hopkin's 70th Birthday." I knew right then and there that my sweet tooth needed to be pleased. I just needed this in my life! I had to make a stop at one of these locations hopefully soon.

So now it is June 4th 2019 and we are in London. It's already

our last stop before heading home from Europe and don't even think for a moment that I had forgotten about the amazing bakeries I had read about. It was in the back of my mind the entire trip. I choose to go to Peggy Porschen's Bakery over Harry Potter's sightseeing spots and believe me I LOOOVE Harry Potter movies (seen the movies and read the books over 10 times each). Unfortunately, I was disappointed from the moment I arrived.

If you are walking by the Chelsea neighborhood and you see a big crowd of girls lining up in front of a pink shop, you have found Peggy Porschen. You can see it in my stories from London on my Instagram. I was sooo upset! I just wanted to eat cake and sip tea with my pinkie sticking out; was that too much to ask? I had considered leaving and I may be a bit impatient yes but I saw so many girls with their pretty outfits posing in front of the doorway and yet it just seemed annoying. In my mind I could hear a little voice repeating, I am here for the food!

After the longest 30 minuts of my life, we finally got seated and we ate. My Pavlova was not only pretty but also delicious and the tea was so smooth and nice. JD ordered a chocolate cupcake, which to me was not anything special or out of this world. The items were definitely, in my opinion, overpriced. We did manage to sit right in front and yes I got a picture standing in the

doorway, which makes me feel like a bit of a hypocrite, but hey I had to. At the end, I was happy I did it but it brought me to my next point. How vain are we as Influencers? Copying each other's posses, posting in front of the bakery like so many other Influencers before them. Why don't we all do something different and special that makes us stand out? Instead of posing in front of the same store.

Now I know how many people may feel about us so-called "influencers". Almost every person in that line had been brought to this place by some other post on Instagram. I felt so self-conscious because I don't want to be this type of person. I want to connect with people and inspire people. I am not in this world to copy somebody else. I wanna be my own brand of awesomeness.

Despite all the things that I do that make me a normal "influencer"for example posting curated content, Instagram stories, review products, take pictures in famous places, etc, I want to be me and make a difference in people's lives while at it. I wanna have an impact on your life! As my reader, you deserve more than to be overloaded with reviews on products and tutorials on how to do a smoky eye, which by the way there are like 1000's of those out there.

I invite you to stick around as I share with you the struggles and the victories so that both you and I can grow and become awesome together.

I hope my story brought you some insight on how being different is what makes us special. I also hope you learn to understand that being unique is the coolest thing you can do and not replicating everybody's Instagram Ideas, nor trying to be someone you are not.

Happy Monday!

Juls

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