The Most Beautiful Lamps in New York
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Kaitlyn: Are you familiar with the concept of imposter syndrome? The opposite of it is when you know that there’s no reason you would be anything but terrible at an activity, yet you can’t help wondering: What if I’m randomly really good at that?
I am afflicted with this problem, and it has become even more obvious since I started watching Survivor, a show about a contest I know I would perform horribly in. I am notably bad at puzzles and lying, and I’m incapable of functioning while feeling hungry. Yet I also assume that I could easily win. You may remember that Lizzie had a similar issue last year when we tried to join the Brooklyn arm-wrestling community; conscious-yet-unflappable overconfidence is a trait we share.
So, cut to this January, when Head Hi, an art-and-design bookstore and coffee shop located near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, published a call for submissions for a lamp show (and sale). “We encourage everyone … all ages, professional designers, or not, to submit a lamp!” the website claimed. “It can be a lamp you created, personalized or just a funky lamp that you found.”
Lizzie: I assumed when they said that “everyone” was encouraged to submit a lamp, it meant that “everyone” would also be able to show their lamp in the lamp show. This would turn out not to be the case, but we’ll get to that later.
Weeks prior to the
