New Year, Same Old Me

Wilfred coat (similar)
Glam Sesh sweater (c/o)
Realisation Par skirt (similar)
Raye boots (c/o REVOLVE) (similar)
Zara sunglasses (similar)
Celine necklace (similar)
Urban Outfitters earrings (similar)
Location: Osborne Village – Winnipeg, Manitoba

My New Year’s Eve didn’t go exactly as planned. That’s okay – life doesn’t always go as planned, but it always goes on. It’s the second day of 2019 and still, I find myself inundated with messages that begin with the words, “New Year, New You.” Marketing messages, most of them directed at women, about personal transformation required at the beginning of a new year are nothing new. I remember radio ads about fad diets playing in late December when I was still in elementary school. But as the number of channels through which marketers can reach an audience increase, the messaging becomes more pervasive – earlier every year, and increasingly specific, too.

Fad diets, extreme exercise regimes and mild self-loathing are all de rigueur at the end of the holiday season. But at some point in the last several years, the messaging around these temporary bursts of physical self-improvement changed. The language we use to describe them changed. We are no longer going on diets or getting fit. We are improving ourselves, we are becoming new people, we are adding value. And all of those statements suggest, not particularly subtly, that we are not enough as we are; that our weight and fitness and beauty define our value as human beings. We see the words, “New Year, New You,” but what we read is, “You are not enough. Your body is a commodity and you can give it more worth if you just work a little harder.”

You are enough.

This may be a new year, but January first is also just the day after December thirty-first. I did not make resolutions, but if there is one thing I am committed to in 2019, it is rejecting the commodification of my appearance and the idea that my appearance is intrinsically linked to the worth of existence. In this new year, I will be the same person I was yesterday, and will be tomorrow. That person is doing just fine. She hasn’t got it all figured out, but she’s working on it, and that’s what matters.

In 2019, my love of beautiful shoes and cosy knits will continue unabated, but I will continue to dress for my own pleasure. If I work hard in the gym, I will take pride in my hard work and strength. But if I don’t feel like running as much this year as I did last year, that will be fine, too. My personal growth will come in fits and spurts, unrelated to marketing messages or social expectations. The things that I work towards and achieve will be for me alone. My failures, which are inevitable, will not diminish me, but offer opportunities to learn. Some of those lessons will probably be hard. But if I can distil them into something meaningful and move forward, then they will be worthwhile.

My Christmas wish for you all was that you love yourselves just a little bit harder. In the new year, I wish you all the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you are good enough just as you are in this moment – but that that doesn’t mean you can’t go on growing and changing, at any time, on any given day of the year that feels right for you.

Happy New Year!