I’ve always considered myself to be fairly good at math. 

So when I’d drive by this certain furniture on the side of the highway that said “7 days until closing”, and a week later, it’d say “6 days until closing,” I knew something was up. 

This furniture store—which I’d always pass by on me and my mom’s weekly Costco runs—was lying straight to the face of its customers, and no one was saying anything.

This made me mad. 

I didn’t take ten years of Kumon to be tricked by a marketing gimmick by some dreary furniture store. I knew that a week later, the sign would still say the same, the furniture store would still be open, even though six days had obviously passed. 

Though this enlightened me to the lies that surround us in everyday life, my mom told me that if you paid attention, these lies were everywhere.

So, it’s this furniture store’s fault that I have trust issues. It’s this furniture store’s fault that I’m a skeptic. 

Like Donald Glover once said,

This is (consumerist)America. 

PC: pinterest

I really love the idea of prom but it always ends up being super weird. I wish that school dances weren’t so awkward. I think it is us that make it awkward because if we all just decided that we were going to have fun and do things together then it wouldn’t be. Unfortunately because we don’t have the social skills to get along with each other, getting ready is my favorite part. That’s why I like dress dinner so much. I like it because it’s an excuse to get ready and put work into myself.  I like to have something to look forward to and talk about leading up to it, but things like that are just never worth the hype.  Although I have that mindset I get my hopes up every time that it’s going to be different and try to make the most of it. So maybe this year will be different.

I love to get ready. A lot of people hate picking out their outfits and taking a long time to do their hair, but I love it when I have time. I get to relax and do self-care all day, then get ready for a fun, nicer dinner. I love getting my nails done and picking out cute dresses while sun-kissed in the summer. Picking out blush shades and watching makeup tutorials. Sitting with a romance movie on as background noise while I have a face mask on my face in my silk pajamas. I sip my smoothie or matcha and read a book, cuddled up in a blanket or watching the sunset along the beach. Silence, quiet, noiseless. The world is quiet with the peace of getting ready. In the end, I am filled with confidence and self-love. Making fun videos and watching them back later of myself blabbing on and on about the most random things while I get ready is something I find to be so fun.

PC:ME

People my age are frequently asked what we want to do when we grow up. Or even what we want to major in for college. When they ask this question, they’re looking for a generic answer such as I want to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a teacher. It is so hard to pick just one thing to be for the rest of your life. I don’t ever want to think about what I want to do for the rest of my life, I like to think about who I see myself as and who I want to be as a person. I think life is more about our feelings and our memories than our income and our occupations.  Some people are passionate about their careers and have wanted to be the same thing since they were kids. But I have never thought about my work in that sense. I think about the time that I have around it. I think about who I want to be to other people and what I want my relationships to look like. I think about how I want to sing and to dance and to experience the world.  We only have so much time to do what we love and to explore ourselves and our boundaries. I wish that when adults ask us what we want to be when we grow up that they are looking for the answer that shows who we want to be as a person in the future. Because there should be so much more space in our lives to be aware and to learn about ourselves.

Pc: Zach Byars