A rant about 'that girl' and a New Year's update!

Hello! :p Happy 2022 lovelies <3

January 8th, 2022 

I started semester 2 classes today but here's what I've been up to and been thinking of recently. I have a TON of blog drafts that I put the date on and am going to release EVERY Sunday! Or every week anyways. A goal of mine is a blog post a week this year because life is too short and my memory is too bad and a lot goes through my mind / happens to me in a week. Thanks for reading xx. 

January 11th, 2022 

The winter break came and went (for most of which I had strep throat and tonsilitis),  but I was thankful to be home and have my family tend to my every need, which included a specific grocery store trip made by my dad for blood orange San Pelligrino! Promise I'm not high maintenance :) 

Post-holiday illness recovery, festive cookie decorating, my mom's gourmet Christmas dinner and cute decorations that always make me smile- I have been loving being home in Vancouver (I think living somewhere for 3+ months means you can officially call it home). Exploring new neighbourhoods, thrift stores and coffee shops, a trip to Costco, and a spontaneous night ski journey to Mount Seymour later I am in love with the place I can now, call home. Not like I wasn't in love the second I got here but sometimes it's good to re-remind yourself how much you love the place you live, if you're lucky enough to. 

My roommate and I have rekindled our love for Sex and the City. Or more so, our affinity for the realistic yet somehow insanely unrealistic tv show where we have spent the past few days narrowing down who in our little trio group is most like who in the show. We separated it into lifestyle and personality, and for the record, I would have Carrie's lifestyle (writer, recreational cigarette smoker, shopping addict) mixed with Miranda and Samantha's personalities (blunt, funny, hates men). I think that we have become so fixated on this show with lavish New York lifestyles and somehow attractive men at every corner that on Sunday, my life actually felt like I was Carrie Bradshaw, much to my surprise. I started the day with a writing submission and some schoolwork before heading to drop off a resume at a luxury boutique store that I really would love to work at. On my way home, walking the same West Fourth Avenue that I do probably daily, I came across a thrift store that had apparently slipped from my eyesight every other time I strolled precisely past it. I went in, found a vintage Armani jacket, put it on hold, and then on my way home held eye contact with a particularly decent-looking stranger to the point where he actually verbalized the words hi as I walked past. As I approached my apartment, a man that I had met earlier on in the week (picture this: my friends Rachel, Izel and I were speed-walking home after a night of playing games at my local arcade bar called Glitch and running to Dairy Queen for blizzards that resulted in us leaving to realize there was an actual blizzard going on outside. The snow was gorgeous and fluffy and there just so happened to be a group of people Bollywood dancing outside my apartment. Not kidding. They asked us to join and the next morning I found myself posted on my university's masters of business Instagram page dancing with strangers on the street in a snowstorm. I'm telling you I can't make these things up. Oh, and they just so happen to live in my building, one of the ones with a balcony too.) So anyways, I saw one of the guys from the dance video smoking on the aforementioned balcony. We waved and said a brief "how are you, have a good night" before I went inside. For a fleeting second, I felt like the hot neighbour that my roommate Alex and I are so desperately trying to manifest living in our building. And then it hit me, maybe we can pretend to be the hot roommates! After all, I think half of being a woman these days is pretending. Pretending to be collected, composed, whatever it may be. And that's not bad either, it's almost like a coping mechanism. And I think that's what much of Sex and the City is- coping mechanisms. What lengths we go to, our breakup habits, late-night indulgences. It's the documentation of pretending to not want the things we actually do. Maybe that's why I like the show so much, because it speaks to a part of me that was too scared to admit liking things as a kid, like when my mom finally let me sit in the passenger seat and I was singing Soul Sister by Train. She asked me if I liked the song and my immediate gut reaction was to say no when it was so obvious that I liked it or I wouldn't have known all the words. Expressing yourself is like letting people in, and that is probably the thing I am most terrible at in this universe. Hey, at least I'm self-aware!

Moving away from Sex and the City and onto my next topic that I have been dying to rant about, is the "that girl" bullshit posts you see on TikTok and Instagram. I'll admit, this is slightly inspired by Julia Hava and Eliza Mclamb that together form the genius Binchtopia podcast, as their most recent episode delved into something I have been itching to explain about the 'that girl' mindset since it became a trend. Being 'that girl' is supposed to represent an organized, active, smart, thriving, busy woman who is so aesthetically perfect and has the most appealing life. Who eats only organic, healthy foods, gets 10 hours of sleep, and journals. I'm not saying these things are bad, because they're actually very good, and I like striving for many of them. The issue is how self-centred it is and how fake it seems in comparison to the ups and downs of everyday living. 'That girl' is not caring about anyone else, is not apart of a community, and does not account for stupid things like missing the bus or spilling coffee on your white sweater. That girl is idealistic, and would only exist if you took the x variable, the unknown, out of everyday life situations. It will never happen on this Earth, ever. And it is such a toxic reference point. You can better yourself while still caring about your community, while having a bad day, while cramming an assignment 5 minutes before it's due. Having acne and drinking four coffees a day should not be seen as unworthy within the 'that girl' persona. Not to mention all of the girls posting this trend are typically pretty white girls, which is problematic in itself. 

January 25th, 2022

Well as per usual my schedule got the best of me and I never finished this New Year's blog draft, which I think emphasizes my "that girl" being a totally dumb concept point even more. 'It girls' on the other hand, are something I would actually love to discuss one day, maybe sometime soon. Stay on the lookout for it. 

I hope you just let yourself be a girl this 2022, don't stress it. Have fun, make mistakes, learn, and appreciate the small things. Now that I'm starting to sound like a parent, I gotta go :) 

Yours in chaos, 

If you stayed till this long, here is my short & sweet yearly goals list (notice how I'm avoiding saying New Years resolutions haha)