As she finished telling me the story of her career, the woman raised her palms and said, “and, voilà!”
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard the word that week. Replacing my room key for maybe the third time, the front desk attendant pushed the new key toward me. “Voilà,” she said.
Voilà—I’d heard it previously, but on a fancy cooking show. The chef pulled the lid from the plate, revealing his masterpiece to the judges. “Voilà!”
But this wasn’t a cooking show, and I was in Brussels where everyone spoke French. Well, everyone except me.
“Voilà!” It sounded like a sophisticated version of “TA-DA!”
And that’s what it is, but not necessarily with the fanfare or production. For many of the people I interviewed during this trip, Voilà was an affirmation of fact. It was used conclusively—a way of saying, “And that’s it.”
When you look up the word, the etymology is French but the Oxford dictionary defines it as “There it is; there you are.”
Each New Year’s, I decide on my word for the year. In 2020, I decided on “fail” with hopes that it signaled I was trying lots of new things and putting myself out there. Crushed that one.
This year, I’m going with “Voilà.”
There it is.
There you go.
In a culture that regularly signals that success requires hustle, that being our best selves requires A, B or C or simply the “more” of capitalism, voilà offers a respite.
That’s it. There you go.
Voilà.