The only way out is through.
A cul-de-sac has one entrance, one way of escape. The circle, a clever trap, becomes disorienting, keeping you in the same mundane loop.
She exists in that circle now, living the life she never thought she would. The same dinner, the same shows on television, the same dripping of the radiator. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this life; there’s just nothing happening either.
One day, while looking for nothing in particular…she finds something. A viewmaster, a memory of before. Before bills and car payments. Before worry and muscle memory.
Click. A canyon opens
Click. A hike she forgot she took
Click. A city she never got to see
Click. A new winter
She saw her old self, all the opportunities she passed up, and the trips she forgot she had taken. But she also saw places she never thought to go. She saw someone new. Her sense of wonder, of being a child, and dreaming of the future, was rediscovered.
The privilege of exploration isn’t money. It’s permission. Permission to imagine yourself not yet narrowed. To hold a horizon up to your face and believe it might expand.
A cul-de-sac has one entrance, one way of escape, and the only way out is through.
So through she stepped.
Creative Direction, Photography, and Words by Evan Skovronsky
Production Design by Iyla Feist
Styling by Elisabeth Edwards
HMU by Holly Ryan
Talent by Carley Fernandez