To be or not to be...royal

Since I will be spending the next two and a half weeks in England (yes, I'm reporting from London this week!), I feel it's appropriate to share a story about being royalty.

My mother's side of family is from England, so England is not foreign to me. In fact, I consider it my second home. Furthermore, my mother is obsessed with the royal family. I don't need to cross the pond to get the royal updates. Sometimes, her information is more current than the news.

My mother and I talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a member of the royal family. We often have different opinions about it; I would love to be part of the royal family. I am sold by glamorous life of being a princess: the designer clothes, jewelry, shoes, private hair dresser, chef, planes and big houses—sorry, I mean palaces. I can go on and on about the perks of being part of the royal family. My mother, on the other hand, doesn't care about any of that; she values her privacy. She thinks that by being in the public eye, she always has to behave and pretend to be someone that she's not. To her, the ugly part of a being royal member is being followed by paparazzi and told me about Princess Diana's death.

I understand her concerns but disagree. To me, that's the best part of being famous. I learned in my marketing class that there is no such thing as bad publicity. If I were a princess, I would use the attention for a better cause.

Even though my mother and I have different views of being famous, or royal, in this case, we both agree the monarchy is important to Great Britain. It gives Great Britain its own uniqueness to stand above the rest of the world. The royal family is well respected. They have a huge responsibility to uphold their status as they present their country.

Welcome to the family, Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge!