Your girl is lovely, Hubble.

I absolutely love the movie "The Way We Were." I could watch Barbara Streisand for hours on end. Her passion for politics, ambition for women, undying love for her man and life, make me want to live my life to its fullest.

While I do not have a passion for politics, I adore fashion. A passion for fashion, could you ask for more? I have ambition but for public relations. And the undying love for a man, well I had that, but like Barbara aka Katie, we have gone our separate ways.

At the end of the film, years had passed since they had seen one another. They separated under hostile circumstances, similar to the split I experienced. I have watched this scene over and over again to gain the strength to be done and start anew. But in movies, they have the ability to jump into the future and reveal to the audience a positive, enlightening ending. But in real life, how do we get from an end to a new beginning?

In this scene, Katie stumbles across her first love Robert Redford aka Hubble in front of the old Plaza Hotel. She sees him from a far with his new wife, the "simple girl." What I envy is her ability in which she walks up to him with such ease, confidence, and pride. Her life is complete without him. After dealing with a breakup from my first love, I need to see that light of living wholly without him.

It is the final scene that you grasp the closure between the two. But I wonder if Katie or Hubble fully moved on without that final call of 'action'? It is sad but true, it is not easy to move on when your past is still present. When ending a long term relationship closure is crucial to take that next step.

This ending scene was recreated by Sex and the City in the second season finale. Carrie Bradshaw breezily walks up to Mr. Big, glances at his simple girl, brushes his sexy bangs to the side of his face, and confidently tells him, "Your girl is lovely, Hubble." Typical Big does not understand the depth and emotion behind this statement. Her last line to him, "And you never did," gives her the final closure she needed to close that chapter of her life.

As she walked away, the infamous line played overhead, "Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they just need to run free til they find someone just as wild to run with them." I couldn't agree more. I'll find that closure someday but until then I am running free and being happy.

One love & lots o' shoes

What is it about high heels that makes all the troubles in the world seem miniscule? When I have a bad day, I fantasize about my shoe collection and slipping into a pair of chic designer heels. I admit this sounds materialistic and shallow, but my shoes seemingly get me through the day. They have the ability to lift me out of a rut, physically and emotionally. Not only do they give me height and tone my calves, but they make me feel fabulous.

When the weekend is on my heels, I often sit in class, twirling my pencil, thinking about my outfit for the evening. I personally like to start from the bottom up. My shoes are automatically the first part of my outfit to hit the runway. Without a fantastic pair of heels for the evening, I feel I have nothing to look forward to. They complete my outfit; a better accessory than any man could be.

Maybe my obsession with shoes is over the top. After all, shoes are just shoes. It is not like you sleep with them on (well maybe sometimes I do). But when you put shoes in perspective, everyone needs a pair or two… or fifty. They inevitably get people from one place to another, some more fashionably than others, but regardless, they do the job. One could say it is a trendy form of transportation.

Or perhaps shoes just help define a person. For me, shoes say everything about who I am. After attending college in a small, liberal town, I can honestly say I have had my share of flip-flops and Birkenstocks. While the first states, “I just threw these on” and the second “I don’t care what I wear,” both create a statement about the person. I feel comfortable generalizing because when I slip into a pair of high heels on a Monday to walk to class, I know people are looking at my feet and the way I strut in my heels. And by all means look. My shoes are meant to be noticed. They are an extension of me.

So who is to say you can’t have something fabulous to lift your spirits and your height. As a very wise man (and my personal favorite), Manolo Blahnik, once said: “[My] shoes are special shoes for discerning feet.”