A Wren Says

When I first learned that Louis Vuitton sold fragrances, I wanted to smell them for myself. I thought better of up and buying those expensive fragrances for just a quick sniff. I could just head into a store to smell them for free. While I walked around Aventura Mall, I finally had my chance. I could see the fragrances right there ahead of me through the door, free and available for smelling. They were so close, yet so far away. I couldn’t possibly go in there. Who was I, in my income bracket, to think it okay to go in? What would they think of me?

I continued to walk around the mall, and peer through the doors on occasion, wondering what they would smell like. Finally, I worked of the courage to face the inevitable rejection and sheepishly asked the door guard if it would be okay to go in and smell the fragrances. “Of course!”

I walked in, and the client advisor assisted me with no questions asked. No sidewards glances, no snide remarks to a coworker. Just a question of what types of scents I like and what I wanted to smell.

While I was in there, now relaxed and smelling the fragrances to my heart’s content, I looked around me. It was just a store. A beautiful maintained store, but a store nonetheless. There were people coming and going, looking for gifts for loved ones. Others came sniffed the fragrances alongside me. There was even another woman, who had come to pick up her purchase while dressed in her work uniform. She was there, shopping unashamedly, with parts of her identity fully on show.

I left that store with scented tested strips and a few samples. I didn’t feel the need to buy something to prove that I deserved to be there. I was just another, unremarkable shopper looking to learn what it was that I truly wanted. In that way I was just like everyone else who walked through those doors. That remains true, regardless of what preconceived beliefs I may have had about that space and my right to be there.

I am glad that I had the courage to walk inside. May I continue to have to courage to bravely walk into more places throughout my life, confident that I belong there, too.