HIGHLIGHTS

First and foremost, wishing all of you a happy 2012! It’s going to be a big year, and we’re thrilled to be able to share in all the excitement that this year is going to present.

Second, we’re back from our brief hiatus and are rejuvenated and refreshed, ready to ring in the new year with everything you need to be your very best this year! Get ready for new posts, new products, new pictures, new trends and most importantly, a new start: a fresh way to look at yourself and the world around you and feel good about it all.

The new year always brings about new resolutions: work out more, finally get those finances in order, cut down on the sugary obsessions, finally make your mark professionally, volunteer more. And resolutions are great. But so often, resolutions are instituted as a form of social “face-saving:” to show our contemporaries that we are, in fact, trying to somehow better ourselves and not accepting the complacency that comes with hanging on to the past. That we’re moving forward, moving away from the little dark clouds that might have burdened some months in the previous year.

I made some resolutions, some of those stereotypical ones that people are so keen to adopt until the second or third weekend in February (isn’t that when the gym starts to clear out again, after all??). I’ve vowed to eat healthier, to explore the outdoors more, to start appreciating all that my city has to offer, to find a permanent residence and most importantly, to be happy with myself. That’ll be tough on days when my hair refuses to cooperate, when my eyeliner just looks weird, when my skin feels tight and blotchy and can’t seem to stay hydrated. When I’m feeling like I weigh a million pounds, when my jeans aren’t fitting just how I think they should, when I find some part of me isn’t as firm as it used to be. And you know what? I think on the days when my hair refuses to cooperate, I’ll just say “screw it!” and rock out a french braid. When my skin feels blotchy, hey, that’s what oversized sunglasses and blush are for. When my jeans feel a little tight, well, that’s a day that is going to be lent to leggings and an oversized sweater. The point is, those off days are fleeting. When you’re having an off day, you’re not falling apart, you’re not unattractive and you’re most certainly not worth of little to no praise. It’s one day: it’ll pass. Your jeans will magically transform into the “traveling pants,” as they’ll miraculously be just divine tomorrow. Your hair will be stunningly gorgeous when you wake up tomorrow morning, no trace of its insolence from the day before visible.

Because through all those little trials that some mornings of 2012 might bring, through all the stress and painstaking attempts to compensate for our body’s inability to adhere to the social constructions of “perfection” and “beauty,” through all the muck that clouds our judgement of ourselves and our actual worth…

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