Veronica Lavil

Traveling historian with a writer's heart

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Category: Opinions

Or my venting writing

Opinions

Daughter of an Immigrant

November 9, 2016January 13, 2017by Veronica LavilLeave a Comment on Daughter of an Immigrant
Daughter of an Immigrant

I am the daughter of an immigrant. I grew up in a house divided by two cultures. I grew up speaking two languages. I grew up defending a mother who had an accent. I grew up having been glared at and even yelled at to speak in English because we were in America (may I [...]

Opinions

No Child Left Behind… But I Was: Building My Own Dream

June 8, 2016January 13, 2017by Veronica Lavil3 Comments on No Child Left Behind… But I Was: Building My Own Dream
No Child Left Behind… But I Was: Building My Own Dream

Two Years Ago An article I wrote in the midst of my anger. "No child left behind, that's the American scheme" raps Macklemore in Ten Thousand Hours, words that to me, resonated as I drove by the high school I graduated from.  Eerie that I paid attention to those words at that moment, due to [...]

Opinions

#WhenIWas: Growing Up as a Girl 

April 27, 2016February 13, 2018by Veronica Lavil4 Comments on #WhenIWas: Growing Up as a Girl 

When I moved to Paris, I realized my femininity. I was in the big city and I wanted to dress well, forgetting the small town norms of jeans and a t-shirt and feeling self-conscious when wearing red-lipstick, I went all out in heels and dresses that made me feel beautiful. I wore pumps for the [...]

A Foreigner in Paris, Opinions

An Aftermath of Paris

November 22, 2015January 13, 2017by Veronica Lavil2 Comments on An Aftermath of Paris
An Aftermath of Paris

It's taken me a while to put these words together. I do not want to misspeak. What happened on Friday, November 13th, 2015 is unimaginable, and I can only imagine what the victim's friends and family and the people who were an audience to the horrors of that night are going through. I was luckily [...]

A Foreigner in Paris, Opinions

The 12 Realities About Being an Au Pair

October 12, 2014January 13, 2017by Veronica Lavil3 Comments on The 12 Realities About Being an Au Pair
The 12 Realities About Being an Au Pair

So you want to travel. You want to see the world. You want to be wanderlust. You have saved up enough money to buy a plane ticket and a few months abroad... but you know what would be better? Getting paid as you lived abroad. So after much googling, you've decided the path for you is au pairing. [...]

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Veronica Lavil

Veronica Lavil

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On the eve of my departure, I had a date between the city and I. I drank red wine from a paper cup from the windowsill of my hotel as I’d done on so many evenings from my first apartment to the last. I listened to the people going on about their lives - the neighbor singing, the people on the streets with their aperitifs, the clinking of pots and pans from an open window of someone preparing their dinner… I remembered nights dancing along the sidewalks, “took our broken hearts, put them in a drawer”, of mornings watching the sunrise from Montmartre, remembering the weeks I didn’t know where I would sleep next… and it was then that I realized that I had wanted a date between myself and the 19 year-old wide-eyed child that arrived, excitedly, to the city of her childhood dreams almost 8 years ago. Paris is the place in where I became so many things I never knew I would and could become. It’s a place where I’ve danced, sang, cried and had to rebuild myself. It’s a city that haunts my past but yet shines with her magical lumière. Every time I come here, I become more at peace with her, both the city and the lost woman I was. I’ll always thank them for making me strong 🤍 It’s a complicated love affair, Paris and I, but how can you not love a place that made you into the woman that you are today? That gave you the best people who continuously show up? I’m appreciative and grateful, though this city can drive me crazy, of what I built here. Paris will always, somehow, feel like home 🤍 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfmqUyFrV1M/ Parisian week As I sat in the courtyard of the halls I used to roam, drinking the same coffee from the cafe where I would spend hours studying (being served by strangers because those that used to work there no longer don’t - I wonder what happened to them), I couldn’t help but wonder how one place can mean so much and be so special yet at the same time be so scary. This place will always feel like home, but to another life and another woman. Though there are so many things I would turn back time on and change, I can’t help but appreciate how far I’ve come. I’ve made a beautiful life for myself and grieved the life I thought I would have. This new one is 100x better. I get to call two of the most beautiful cities in the world home. Ti amo Parigi. Je t’aime Paris. There is something about how the light hits at sunset, no? “I grew up bilingual… the bi does not stand for two but for adiós to speaking any language correctly”… and so starts my videos that I shall call #byelingual, in which I share with you the things I’m learning about the 4 languages I speak *decently*. Might as well start making fun of the stupidities I’m learning and embarrass myself on the internet. Her story changed and better days came ( 📸 @nnsiyafirsova ) May - moved into my new apartment, turned 27, danced in Torino, dipped my toes in the sea to get burned for the first time this season, and saw friends accomplish important things in their lives 🤍

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