“Anything is possible with sunshine and a little pink.”
-Lilly Pulitzer
For those of y’all who may be strangers to the southern household name of Lilly Pulitzer, Y’all don’t know what you’re missing. Embedded in the popping patterns that prance across her timeless shift dresses are strands of sunshine radiating like a lighthouse beam with the power to cut through any gloomy day. I have concluded that it is nearly impossible for me to feel blue when wearing so much Lilly pink. This firm belief in the sunshine culture is the itch that inspired my hands to paint my all-time favorite pattern on my study room wall…Lilly’s First Impression.
I am in my first year of law school, a time where I’ve been told that stress can sneak up on you if you don’t take care to keep it at bay with prayer, proactivity, and positivity. I knew that I had to make my study room an oasis where my creativity and energy could be restored after a long day of lectures. A drab space could be detrimental to my motivation, but the right one could put the zip-a-dee in my doo-dah and help me study all night long. It was a week before orientation, and I was muddling enough ideas for how to decorate my study room to make a girl tipsy. That’s when the pink pinched me. I realized nothing puts a pep in my step quite like Lilly, so I made the dash to Hobby Lobby, grabbed my brushes, the paint I had, and started the mural I had only ever replicated on canvases and small crafts for my sorority’s Big & Little week.
Honestly, I was a little intimidated about taking on a wall, mainly since the only roses I had ever painted were half the size of the ones I would be attempting. With prayer, paint, and my MacBook wallpaper as my guide, I watch the garden on my wall bloom with every layer of pink planted. Six hours later, aching arm and all, my masterpiece was complete.
I sat for a spell taking in what I had created, knowing that in this space I would be challenged to think in ways that my minded could currently not conceive. I would be pushed to my limits, and find a way to break past them into new levels. I would be wrought into an attorney within the confines of these walls, and I knew that now I was ready.
You see, I was honestly worried about how this wall would turn out. I seriously contemplated taking a more leisurely route and decorating it with something else, but I took it as a personal challenge and did it anyway. If I had let my fear of these flowers failing to impede me from trying, I would never have known that I would be capable of painting this. Sometimes you just have to do things that are scary and trust that it will be alright. This is a lesson I will carry with me as I begin my trek through my legal education. The word of the Lord says “Be strong and courageous and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord God, My God is with you.” –1 Chronicles 28:20. This wall was the first of many challenges, but I am not afraid, I am ready, I am willing, and I am really excited. I can’t wait to see what this adventure holds.
With love from the Lonestar,
Isabella
