All posts tagged: lessons

The Curse of the “Skinny Fat”

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Originally posted on The Lit Biwi:
I have a confession: I hate my body. How many of us have this same issue? Midnight pizza/donut/cheesecake cravings, and the inability to shut out the food monsters in our bellies? (I know Paul is one of us for sure.) Here’s something y’all don’t know about me. I used to be overweight in high school. I was a whopping seventy kilos of just adipose and no muscle and it was um, pathetic. Then I went to college and dropped thirty kilos in less than a year, without diet or exercise – thanks to our mess(y) food which was 90% water – and also gave myself anemia in the process. When I was in my third semester of college, I was mighty proud of my newly acquired slender frame which also oh my goodness, came with a waist! You won’t understand the glory of having a waist after years of being a solid brick wall with zero curves. And I became obsessed with maintaining this weight. A mere forty kilos.…

Laughter Looks Good on You

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Originally posted on This, That and the Other Thang:
I love my laugh. It’s probably one of my favorite things about me. (I know, in a society that values modesty above all other things, that’s not exactly something that you’re supposed to say. You’re not supposed to have favorite things about yourself; other people can have favorite things about you and give you compliments and you take them graciously, but you never admit that you agree. Well, I think that’s kind of silly, because if you love something about yourself, you should own it. But I digress.) Someone once told me that my laugh is the kind of thing people know they’ve earned, that makes them feel good about themselves, because they feel like they were genuinely funny enough to earn such a reaction. It’s a loud laugh, obnoxious at times and certainly the direct opposite of sexy (boy, I’m really selling this thing, aren’t I?) because I’ve never been able to learn how to make it quieter and I’ve never bothered to try. I’ll giggle…

Dear China

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Originally posted on Reverse Retrograde:
Dear China, I miss you. I miss you more than I would have thought. Thank you for flipping my narrative on its head. Thank you for the craziness and the chaos that you seamlessly fold into the beauty of your country. Thank you for the challenge. I never would have known that the One Child Policy was not particularly enforced. I would never have known how open and honest and straight-talking your people are. I would never have known that you are such a rich and green and bustling place. I find myself missing you, but I don’t exactly know why. Our time together was not good. We struggled, you and I. I miss your contradictions in the face of those in Korea. I miss your open and entrepreneurial spirit. I believe, honestly, that you alone embody the American Dream these days. Maybe the fact that nobody ever knows what the fuck is going on makes you flexible. You are an ancient civilisation with a modern life. This amateur historian…

I Woke Up 25

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Originally posted on Nothing Was Said:
Yesterday morning I woke up 25. Amid the shit-storm that has rained down on me in the past week, I am not surprised that upon waking I managed to get half way through the day without realizing that it was my birthday. The realization finally hit as I wrote the date next to my signature on hospital admission papers for my younger sister. It’s been that sort of week. I am not going to delve into the laundry-list of things that have gone awry in the past few days, because today, the day after I woke up 25, I am in a stellar mood. Today I finally get the keys to my new apartment. Today I get to move in. Today my sister gets out of the hospital. Today I meet with some of my new colleagues in preparation for school next month. Today I’m 25 and 1 day. I always hated it when I was a kid and on your birthday it was funny to ask someone if…

What it’s like to fly business class when you have no business to be flying business class

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Originally posted on Annabel Fenwick Elliott:
The best flying experience of my lyyyfe Last week I was lucky as fuck enough to fly to Australia BUSINESS CLASS. The downside of this is that I’m ruined for life now. I live in London and my father has lived in Australia for some 20 years, so I’ve spent a lot of time on very, very long-haul flights. It’s far from pleasant, of course, being strapped into an upright chair squidged next to strangers and screaming infants for 24 hours but obviously these are first world problems. I’ve developed a formula, and coping mechanisms, and mainly it all revolves around drinking heavily and knocking myself out with sleeping tablets until it’s all over – somehow managing to keep it together during the layover – before emerging, Gollum-like, on the other end. It’s all fucked now that I have experienced what it’s like to fly from London to Australia up at the front of the plane. I flew Cathay Pacific, which I’m told is the best in the world…

Boohoo Fashion Resolutions

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Originally posted on The Flower That Blooms:
At the beginning of January we were contacted by Boohoo and asked if we would like to collaborate on a resolutions post. Every year the majority of people make resolutions they can’t keep, so Boohoo decided to give bloggers the chance to make a resolution they’d hopefully stick to! They kindly gifted us an item each that we wouldn’t normally go for but wanted to try and style. So here are the pieces we chose, let’s hope we can stick to this resolution! Rachel: Lara High Rise Skinny Jeans I’ve always been a fan of patterned trousers but I’ve never been brave enough to buy myself a pair. This was the perfect opportunity to get myself some and try something new, finally! I love the red and black check design, they’re also high waisted which is something I like my trousers to be. I’d say the material makes them feel more like thin trousers than jeans but regardless of this I love them! I styled the trousers with a black cropped…