New Year, Still Me

Happy, happy 2017. As a way to ring in the new year, I looked at my content and made a list of what else I want to share with ya’ll. I have always had a blank Advice tab, and that hadn’t necessarily bothered me until now- 1:36 AM on a Friday, of course.

2016, I think we can all agree was a rough one. Don’t get me wrong- some amazing things did actually happen. I started a blog; I visited home in Chicago, Miami, Montreal (twice!), and New Jersey.. well, my Uber took me there by accident due to a lack of GPS signals. I continued amazing friendships with my favorite people in the entire world and even started new ones (shoutout to Summer Friends). I learned that instead of making resolutions that I will start waking up before 10, my resolution will be to accept my sleeping habits just the way they are. I learned that no matter how many times I force myself to try shrimp at family parties, I will NEVER like it. I finally, finally allowed myself to realize it’s much more fun for me to spend the night in with myself and a book than to go to party and socialize with people that I really don’t want to socialize with just for the sake of not spending the night in. I learned what makes me truly mad and the way that I deserve to be spoken to. I learned what to do if I don’t feel that respect that I deserve- walk away, always. I learned that even though I need to fix my sleeping habits, sometimes I just get more creative past 2AM. I learned that a  manicure literally means Man, I Cure Anything. (Look good, feel good peeps). I learned that cooking is an art form and is so therapeutic. I also learned what it means to truly ache for other people and to feel their pain as we lived through so many horrible events along police brutality, blatant racism and hate, massacres and deaths.

This year has almost been surreal to me. I’ve laughed a lot, worked a lot, cried a lot. There are people I’m still in love with and friends that I’m still trying to help that somehow anchor me to the past, but there’s something about that that keeps me feeling like myself. If I fully grew out of the people that shaped the way I began seeing the world, I would feel quite lost. I think back to my Junior year of high school, which was 4 years ago and remember what kind of place I was in- I had so many emotions, all of the time. I was surrounded by a lot of anxiety that I no longer have to worry about. A lot of this year’s tears were not personal. They were shed the day of my brother’s college graduation as I heard about the shooting in a nightclub in Orlando. I was anchored to my bed as soon as I got home.  They were shed the day of the Paris attacks. They were shed all through the election of political unrest and unprofessionalism. They were shed the day a small bomb went off in NYC and when my best friend had her heart broken. We’ve been through the ringer this year and that’s why I think 2017 is going to be so amazing. Our roots are strong, and we've learned more than I thought possible. 

This year I want to keep pursuing styling for you guys but I want to focus a lot on advice and a little more personal excerpts. If you have anything you want my opinion on or thoughts about, regarding anything, feel free to either comment on this if you’re comfortable or email/DM me if you want to keep it private.   

My first advice of 2017: take the help, collaborate. Share your dreams; your friends and family are here to help and love you all the way through. Sometimes it feels easier to do things on our own- I get that- but having someone to lean on will ease your anxiety and help you get from point A to point B with much more ease and happiness. 

photo credit: @baronvonfancy