Manda Grace Lee

Stroll Down Hope St. - “Thanks FIDM”

Time has gone be SO fast. I cannot believe that in less than two months my time at FIDM will be over.

I’m so thankful for the chance to have gone to school with the FIDM experience in downtown LA. I feel like I found a part of me here that I didn’t know existed before. The walk along Hope St. led me to find a home in the library, make the beautiful books and people my new friends, watch hours of old movies trying to gain the style and gumption of the leading ladies, and be inspired and touched by the teachers’ experience and eagerness to share. It has been exhilarating to be in a classroom full of peers with big ideas and big dreams to match and I can’t wait to see what everyone will go on to accomplish.

It is true that “all good things come to an end” but I’m truly thankful and feel blessed for having the chance to experience it all and to have met the people that I have.

So for all the June grads: Congratulations, enjoy the last weeks here, and good luck on everything that comes next!

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten.

- Natasha Bedingfield

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”

• Dalai Lama

“By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.”

- Mark Zuckerberg

Myself

I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know,
I want to be able, as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don’t want to stand, with the setting sun,
And hate myself for things I have done.

I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself, as I come and go,
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of a man I really am;
I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.

I want to go out with my hand erect,
I want to deserve all men’s respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know
That I’m bluster and bluff and empty show.

I can never hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself, and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.

- Edgar A. Guest

I love sitting in the library looking at pretty pictures of natural beauty and created beauty.  It is one of my favorite things to do and is such an escape from everything that is real.  Getting lost in the books and creations of innovative designers and the elegance of the past brings a beauty into my life that i crave. 

my escape - daily doodle blog:
www.sketchbuzz.tumblr.com

sorry old friends… you are not welcome anymore.

 ”New York, Milan, Paris… Please”

Dear Summer,

Thank you for the beach therapy, sending a wave, giving a golden glow, top-down nights, and open-toed shoes.  I’ve stored up on buckets of sand, tanning sessions, and beach water.  Now I am ready to get through the winter. 

As always, I can’t wait to see you again.    

Til next year :)