"It’s life-changing to experience a world abroad. The shifts in culture, in history, and in experience bring forth new life to writing as a whole."
There are no words to accurately describe how creativity changes through physical location. While it is understood that there are cities designated as artistic or iconic, the personal experience clearly varies from person to person. However, no matter how this change articulates itself, the shift in perspective will always somehow bring benefit.
My experience in Paris is evidence for this fact. Coming from New York City, I was no stranger to living in a city filled with creativity and rich in history. However, going abroad, my entire writing practice evolved. Rather than the hustle and bustle of NYC, Paris simultaneously contained much more leisure and focus—cafés filled with writers and artists of all kinds at all times, museums on every block, festivals taking over the entire city.
When you are surrounded by people obsessed with the idea of passion, that energy is infectious. My housing was right beside a patisserie where I would grab breakfast every morning, attracted by the scent of freshly baked bread. But, despite not speaking a lick of French, I would try and chat with the employees behind the counter. They explained to me the difference between a baguette tradition and a baguette classique. Their passion pushed onto me the importance of ingredients and ensuring the quality of simple bread (I only get tradition now).
We went to cheese museums, perfume factories, and chapels. Ranging from simple people watching to actively indulging in our senses, these seemingly mundane things I saw daily in the United States became sources of inspiration. However, when writing, these things weren’t entirely Parisian. They became something else, something chimeric. People always say writing is a child of the totality of someone’s experience.
Sitting in areas where writers like James Baldwin took root, I think writing also becomes the ghost of everyone in the locale. By that I mean everyone who existed in the past, present, and maybe even future. Unknowingly, until one of my peers pointed it out, I constantly took inspiration from this lady praying over a glass of wine. Or dining at the Le Select, the photos of James Baldwin brought whispers of hidden homosexuality and race.
It’s life-changing to experience a world abroad. The shifts in culture, in history, and in experience bring forth new life to writing as a whole. It fundamentally changes you, meaning your writing as well. Now that I’m back in New York, I still have flashes of Parisian streets with dreams of coffee and bread.
