lifestyle Tag

People love to hate on Valentine’s Day.  But why?  It’s just a stupid holiday created by Hallmark, right? Maybe.  Maybe not.  Let’s not take it so personally.  Quite frankly, “Singles Awareness Day” is getting old.  I’m over it.  She’s over it.  He’s over it.  Yes, I am aware that singles outnumber married people in America, but can we just call it “Saturday”?  Or, like, “Wear Something Sexy and Eat Chocolate Day”?   And besides, are any of us really alone?  Grab your best girlfriends and toast to singledom!  Dear single, youRead More

I pulled back the drapes, my drapes, white and wilted. Fog lied ferociously across the glass. And lonely, little drops of condensation were flung about. Ignorant, because they weren’t alone, but part of a larger collection of one morning. I was intrigued that I could do that myself. It didn’t take the breath of two bodies: one slightly cigarette scented and the other certain. It didn’t take sex. It didn’t take a whole night’s sleep of spooning and swaying under shoved down sheets. Just me. In the middle of my bed. WithoutRead More

I have considered myself a feminist for an extremely long time now, and a very passionate one at that. As a Gender Studies major in university, a woman of colour, and a minority within a couple of essential aspects, I have found myself coming to the realization that it will take a hell of a lot of effort to change the world as it is today. To abolish misogyny, raise awareness, and bring women/minorities up to the level of the white capitalist supremacist heteropatriarchy are all far-fetched dreams of mine,Read More

As the economy teeters back from it’s near seven-year dance of riding on a single rail companies are once again starting to hire. And with so many eager participants to no longer be underemployed, HR departments are barely treading water above a deluge of applications. This perfect storm has given birth to the unhallowed beastie of employment-seeking, the kraken of job-getting: the group interview. In the wide and awkward world of acutely uncomfortable moments that is attaining employment, there is almost no greater circus of discomfort than the group interview. ARead More

I am in a transition phase. One where I’m not single, but I’m not in a relationship either. This means that I do not want a boyfriend, or someone exclusive, or a relationship for a long, long time. I am at that point in my life where I actually need to focus on me. I barely came out of my last relationship in one piece so I need to work on putting myself back together, and figuring out who I am. It is for this reason, and this reason only,Read More

1. It’s really hard, and you enjoy a more casual amount of exercise. Walking from the couch to the fridge, for example. 2. Those weird pull-ups thy do look dumb and probably don’t even work. I bet you can do 30 of them in a row already. Go ahead, try it. 3. Your ego would really take a hit getting put to shame by a ripped and gorgeous Crossfit girl, better not risk it. 4. You don’t want to lift weights and get bulky like a man, you prefer yourRead More

Every holiday season brings something new, and this year brought for me some observations. This being my first holiday season an appetizer contributing adult, I noticed things I had never considered in my many years as nothing more than a young gift receiver.   1. Each day closer to Christmas and New Years everyone’s driving gets worse. Everyone is desperate to finish shopping and beginning to lose their minds from all of the contact with distant relatives.   2. After December 20th, don’t even try surviving the mall. If DecemberRead More

I am obsessed with order, symmetry, perfection. I hate gray areas, in-betweens, grounds of ambiguity. Last year, I strove for an all-or-nothing “balance” that I thought would regulate and organize my life. However, what I’ve realized is that balance is not about “extremes” leveling each other out. It is not always about saying a hard yes or a hard no. It isn’t about making a definite decision. Rather, a true balance is about finding the middle ground that I have hated so much. Last year, in an effort to maintain aRead More

When I started college last year, I averaged about five hours of sleep a night. As the year tolled on, my alarm clock chirped an hour earlier. Four hours of sleep definitely wasn’t something I enjoyed, but it was a routine necessity just like everything else on my to-do list. I enlisted it as another adjustment to becoming an “maturing.” Adulthood meant being career-driven and hungry for success—so naturally, sleep deprived, right? Unfortunately, even only a few months, in the human body realizes that it simply cannot operate with soRead More

I am the biggest sucker for sunsets, and Los Angeles particularly seemed to know that. My first time there was enough to have me stumbling over, in love. The term “takes my breath away” has always been a cheesy one. Walking into the sunset is clichéd. But that was exactly what LA was – sheer beauty – and no other way to describe it. LA punched me, slapped me – enamoured, enthralled me. I gazed with glassy eyes over sunsets brighter, bloodier than any I had ever seen. I stumbledRead More

I’ve made it back home after a three week solo roadtrip on the west coast – and I am in one piece. My limbs are all still attached, my physical state is intact except for a bike scrape on my ankle. I’ve returned with all my possessions present, minus one lost hair elastic and one tube of lipstick. I would consider my sanity partially stable, and my mental health only mildly shaken. My bank account will need a whole year to recuperate, but I feel exponentially richer than before IRead More

We can’t stop, and we won’t stop—Well, you should stop. New Year resolutions are great—if you’re the type of person who is so self-disciplined that you can actually follow through with your promises for longer than one week—aka, you’re probably not human. So, as imperfect humans, we are typically more prone to listen when we are told no, don’t, STOP. The negative is always more powerful, and I’m going to put that to the test.   15 Stop-It’s for 2014 Stop spending more on material goods than on experiences. It’s greatRead More

It’s time to stop kidding ourselves.   Resolution #1: Lose weight Actual outcome: Go to the gym a couple times a week but still eat like shit and drink like a frat boy on the weekends, resulting in maybe a pound lost and regained over the course of a month. Rinse, repeat.   Resolution #2: Cook for myself and stop eating pasta and salad every night like a scrub Actual outcome: Maybe cook quinoa or lentils every once in a while. Continue to buy the Publix pre-made roasted chicken.   Resolution #3: Keep a budgetRead More

Making resolutions for the new year is easy: lose weight, read more, eat healthy, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, these life changing commitments are typically abandoned well before the second month of the year. Instead of setting yourself up for failure with vague resolutions and no plan of action, this can be the year that you actually follow through.   Instead of “lose weight” 1. Don’t drink during the week. Alcohol isn’t doing us any favors when it comes to our health. For most people, it’s pretty unrealistic to cut out alcoholRead More

I used to think that the term “young adult” referred to Twilight novels only, but I am tired of repeatedly crediting my generation as “twenty-somethings,” so here we are. New Year’s resolutions are either a popular or vexatious topic, depending on the seriousness of the declarations and the audience’s own commitment to growth and change, but there is hardly a young adult who doesn’t use social media in some form or another. In this Near Year if you make any resolutions, I hope you dance, yes, but also that your resolutionsRead More