I Will Never Wear Prada

Last night Helen and I went to see The Devil Wears Prada. As soon as the main character, Andrea, mentioned she went to J-School (journalism) at Northwestern, I started thinking, this could be me. This could have been my life. Not really, but play along with me for a minute. Ever since I was about 10 years old, I remember knowing that I wanted to be a writer, editor, and work in publications somehow. Which is what led me to pursue a degree in journalism--magazine publishing to be precise--after undergrad. About midway through my 12-month program, I remember knowing that I was somehow different than my peers. Everyone--the men, the women, everyone--was aspiring to move from Chicago to New York, get a low-paying, coffee-making grunt-work job at a high-profile fashion or culture magazine, and spend the next five to umpteen years as a overworked, underpayed slave to the industry, sacrificing their personal life on the way. I knew I didn't want that. And so although The Devil Wears Prada was a highly entertaining movie about a young woman who eventually rights the wrongs she has made along the way, she is trapped for a time in having sold her soul to the Devil... Andrea made me so glad I chose differently for my life.