An atypical GenX, I have always been in awe of younger generations. I like to brag that at least one of my best friends is a millennial - although my definition of a best friend is rather lax, as they might agree. My latest stint as a university lecturer made me realize that GenZ is not too shabby either. That’s where I want to bring you: it is precisely thanks to GenZ that I discovered that what I have been living at least since moving to the US can be expressed by the concept of cottagecore. Meaning: as my past posts here and on social media might suggest, it looks like I have been cottagecore AF avant-la-lettre.
Image generated by Midjourney
And not just any cottagecore. I have been cottagecore right in the heart of the city. Extremely lucky to have had a backyard and owned garden patches always just a few minutes away from Manhattan, I took up gardening for the first time in my life, mostly because I had a place of my own to do it. When it comes to crafting - the mainly indoor side of this lifestyle - it was a favorite way for me to unwind ever since I learned to knit from my mom, at about eight years old. Prior to that, I always enjoyed le bricolage - thanks to the French magazine Pif Gadget, to which my parents subscribed in the seventies.
Why an adventure, then? It’s an oxymoron. Cottagecore equates to ultimate comfort, at least in my book. However, if we are to follow science-backed research into happiness (and I’d say we should), we need to balance comfort with adventure. Adventure in my case led me to …my cottage. My life partner is a professional musician and, for a while, I joined him on his European tours. One of my many hats, in addition to the gardening one, is that of a music producer and manager. Lately, I have been learning to record using the professional software and equipment that makes the geek in me rejoice, in our very own recording studio, hosted in our urban “cottage”.
After stopping our travels to focus on getting our advanced University degrees (in comfort), we started adding adventure back into our lives.
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