change

The other night I stumbled upon Robert Polidori, an architectural photographer who, among other ventures, has been tracking Versailles' metamorphoses for the past twenty years. The first time I saw it I was in fourth grade and was completely enamored with the preserved tapestries, huge stone staircases, elaborately carved moldings, and of course the gardens. Last fall I visited the chateau once more and took in it's wonders through an older set of eyes.


I love the juxtaposition of modern renovations and original beauty in this photo. Since the time Versailles was built, it has undergone countless transformations, but it constantly remains Versailles and is steadfast in it's beauty.

Maybe this stage in life, senior year and just after, is especially like Versailles. We graduate from college and jump into a new life but with our same old habits, hopes, dreams, friends. Even as we form new ones, we are still the same self with new additions mixed in with our own classical elements. We're old but we don't stop changing.

Hopefully our souls and lives will become more lovely with age and the jumble of old and new aspects of our souls. We don't know what things will be like in a year, five years, two decades; but maybe imagining ourselves as chateaux will make the transition bearable, and possibly even beautiful.