Welcome to a new decade- the Roaring Twenties reborn for a new age of revelers. This is my New Year’s post. We made it, folks!
In the past, I’ve been known to make long, overwrought lists of resolutions I never stick to, so this year I felt like keeping it simple by making myself a mood board to envision the vibe I want to carry with me this year: Staying strong while being soft.
While traversing life’s winding road, obstacles are an inevitability. It’s easy to let them erode us, steal our hope and make us cynical, so it’s imperative that we put things into perspective. Difficulty is what makes us strong. Pressure creates crystals, gleaming bits of beauty that can become sharp and dangerous over time. That’s why we need to remind ourselves to stay soft.
I fully admit to being a pessimist who has a problem opening up to people. I expect the worst. I’ve always told myself that if I have no expectations, or even low expectations, than I can never be let down. And it’s true that I don’t often get let down by other people, but I’m constantly letting myself down by not opening up to all of the possibilities on my path. I need to be soft, forgiving, understanding, empathetic, open and willing to let life take me where it wants me to go, without letting myself become a victim.
2020 is the year we hold each other up and turn our faces toward the future without fear. Just a resolve to make it better, and hope. That’s the most important part.
It’s been over two months since I posted my last article to this website. It’s the longest hiatus I’ve taken since I started this as a hobby project over a year ago. In that amount of time, the Spring/Summer 2020 fashion season came and went without a word from me, despite the fact that I still kept up with the shows and even made lists of all of the collections I was dying to write about here. I just… didn’t.
There are two things I can do in a case like this: 1) I can beat myself up over failing to stick to the plans I previously set out for myself, sending myself into a toxic spiral of guilt, disgust, and self doubt, or 2) I can take stock of my place in life, where these past couple months have taken me, and where I plan on heading next. While the first choice is one I’ve indulged in more times than I care to admit, let’s examine the second option.
That completely obvious to the point of being annoying saying is true (although you don’t need me to tell you that)- life never stops. It doesn’t slow down to take stock of your feelings, and it doesn’t crouch down in front of you when you collapse from exhaustion to ask if you’re okay. It just keeps going. After moving to a new city and starting a new job I didn’t feel entirely qualified for, these past couple of months have been one big game of catch up. I’ve been devoting so much energy into trying to be good and likable in my new career, that everything else just sort of fell to the wayside. I would come home every day and want to become flat, so I could better lay horizontally and do nothing. I stopped picking up after myself, stopped journaling, stopped doing any kind of creative writing at all, including recording my thoughts on the latest in fashion to all four of my fans (hi, mom!).
While this complete abandonment of initiative outside of work may seem foreign to some people who cope with stress by leaning further into their personal projects, it’s a totally normal reaction when rebuilding your confidence from the ground up. It isn’t lazy to put other things aside. It isn’t wrong to want to rest and clear your mind when you get home. It isn’t wrong to forget about your passion project for weeks, months or even years at a time. While time never stops, there always seems to be enough of it (even too much at some points) to start again. In fact, the reason I chose to finally log back into this site after so long is because, simply put, I missed it. That’s another thing breaks do wonders for- rekindling love for passions that may have lost their sharpness over time. Time away helps the heart grow fonder.
So yes, dear reader, I am back with renewed vigor to continue posting about the things I enjoy most in life- and this is just the start of the next chapter of The Young Eclectic.
Before writing this I sat, letting the cursor blink forever before finally forming any words, because I’m not even sure how to start this article. The irony isn’t lost on me, trust me!
Writer’s block is a common phenomenon that has probably plagued anyone that has ever tried to write anything in their lives. It’s when the words stop flowing, and it seems like you’ve completely run out of anything to say. It’s when the thought of that blinking cursor on that blank screen just makes you want to roll over and not even face that insurmountable wall of not-words-yet. And it’s what I’ve been experiencing for probably a good month now.
If you’ve been keeping up with this website regularly, then you might have noticed that the number of articles I’ve been posting has significantly decreased in number. This is something I’m well aware of, and it makes me upset to think about how I’m having such a hard time keeping up with this hobby I’ve created for myself. At some point, I suppose, it stopped feeling like a hobby and felt more like an obligation. I HAVE to post something today! I better quickly draft up something I’m not even proud of and post, post, post. In some ways, I began to feel like the quantity of my posting was all that mattered, when that’s never why I started this project in the first place.
But why do the fun things we love start to feel like chores? Why does it get harder to start things, make plans, follow through? Why does it start to feel like life is just a play of going through the motions? I suppose it does when you’re not only experiencing writer’s block, but life block as well.
And this isn’t some confessional written to garner sympathy and praise for my bravery at admitting that my emotional health has not been A+ lately. We all experience these periods in life where we wish things felt better. And by no means is my life bad. No, there is nothing wrong with my life, there is just something moderately wrong with the way I’ve been perceiving it.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is that, it’s been hard for me to write articles for this site and get genuinely excited about the things that tend to excite me because lately it’s been hard for me to get excited about anything. And maybe admitting this to myself is the first step in trying to remedy the problem, and make it so fun things stop feeling like chores and become fun again. You have to keep hope that these phases are temporary, because they are! (I really promise that!)
Thanks for keeping up with The Young Eclectic. I promise there will be more to see soon!
Hi, my name is Anna and you’re probably wondering how you ended up on this site, quite possibly reading this very article. Here’s the deal: the story of the birth of The Young Eclectic is neither unique, nor interesting, but it’s my story, so I’m going to tell it.
Some people have loud and long dreams, dreams that consume them and push them forward toward their ultimate destiny in life. And if you’re the type of person that has a dream like this, man, you are lucky! Grab onto that dream and let it pull you toward whatever greatness you are sure to achieve, and don’t let go for anything (within reason!).
My dream, on the other hand, started quietly. I always knew I wanted to write (hey, I’m still working on that novel!)- but what I wanted to write, I wasn’t too sure. So I went to college and chose possibly one of the safest, most dull paths I could have: Public Relations. And if you don’t know what that is, it’s basically advertising but without the money and glamour. It’s earning publicity for a client, often through writing things like press releases and setting up interviews and stuff like that.
But this story isn’t about PR- it’s about The Young Eclectic.
I should preface this next part with this: I have always had the pipe dream to someday work in the fashion industry, spurred by my obsession with fashion magazines. So when we were asked to create a blog for my PR writing class, I knew exactly what I would cover. And so my first serious blogging project began: Startorial. A portmanteau of “star” and “sartorial,” a detail that was probably lost on most people.
The compelling image I chose for the header of my first serious blogging venture: Startorial. I wanted something bold that would really capture the eye, and this image really did the trick!
I posted to Startorial irregularly, never motivated to really keep going with it. I had no skin in the game, I had made no sacrifices. The blog was free to maintain and I used a free theme- I quite simply had nothing to lose by forgetting about it, so I did.
However, my ill-maintained first attempt at blogging did do me one favor. It gave me the desire to carve my own space on the internet and see where it takes me. I even had the crazy idea to maybe try my hand at making my own fashion magazine someday! Call it a wild dream, but dreams start somewhere, as they did with Tavi Gevinson with Rookie Mag and Leandra Medine with Man Repeller.
So, back to the shower, because we’ve come this far and there has yet to be mention of the fateful shower that started it all. That’s because it’s the least interesting part of the story. We all know how it goes- Someone stands in their shower, maybe mindlessly singing a tune while lathering up, and suddenly gets an idea. Maybe not even a terrible idea. A quite good idea, perhaps worth thinking about once the faucet is turned off and you’re sitting in bed with your hair wrapped in a towel.
UT Austin Class of 2018 woot woot!
My idea was The Young Eclectic- a simple, easily pronounceable and memorable title that conveys what I would like it to- I’m a young, eclectic individual that wants to share her ideas with the world at large, whoever that may be! I took the plunge, finally bought my own domain and started this crazy process of actually doing something and sticking with it, figuring I might actually be able to pull this off now that I’ve graduated college and have a much more stable life schedule.
So, what should you expect from this blog (dare I say… *magazine*)? Expect to see a lot of fashion, pop culture musings, rants, reviews, some art, some photos and a whole lotta nonsense!
If that sounds good to you, then welcome! And I’ll see you around.
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