Paris

The only class I got excited for in high school was art history, in fact it was the only honors class I took. As soon as Mr. Tobias dimmed the lights and illuminated the first slide I was transported to Paris back when art ruled the world. It was both the art and Europe that seemed so alluring. I imagined strolling down a rue in Paris finding myself in front of 17th century baroque architecture in awe. I told my dad that I was going to study art history major to become an art curator to which he replied, “psssh no”. I ended up putting that dream on the back burner and I rarely revisited.

As I began my career and I began to travel extensively throughout Asia and Africa. Places like China, India and Togo had not been on my travel wish list before but I fell in love with each countries uniqueness during my time there. My crush on Paris began to fade as the role of France in Togo’s colonization was revealed to me. My outlook on many European countries changed during trip to Ghana where I visited Elmina Castle, the largest slave castle occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch and British. I am thankful for seeing the developing world first because I am no longer ignorant to Europe’s prominent role in the colonization and continued effect it has on these countries.

I pushed visiting Europe to a later part of my life and it no longer seemed so alluring. When I visited Togo last summer I flew through Ghana then drove to Lome. On the way home, my layover was in Amsterdam so I decided since I was already going to be in Europe why not see it. I extended my layover which gave me 6 days in Europe. I took the train down to Paris and spent fours day with my best friend. We stayed in a friend’s flat across from Musee D’Orsay all of which were formerly dreams come true. I was excited to see the art and the architecture but there was a dim cloud over the trip because I was coming from Togo, a country that was colonized by the French. When Togo got their independence, France destroyed all the infrastructure forcing the country to start from nothing. While walking along the seine I couldn’t help but think about the dichotomy between the country I had just left that was still building a sewage system for its capital while currently starring at a building over 1000 years old.

Yes, I enjoyed walking to streets of the city, popping into cafés for coffee and wandering around museums but it was now hard to see the present beauty with all the ugliness