YOU DON’T SAY (YOUR SWEATER DOES)

Word up straight up this is one of my favorite sweaters - I got it at Zara ages ago, and am still wearing it on the reg. Raised an only child, this was essentially the motto of my first decade or so of life. My mom was a shopper - it sparked mucho joy in her to acquire things, and lucky for me, our love languages lined up nicely: she scratched her retail itch by buying me gifts. Now I'm a grown-up asshole trying to learn to share, stop being competitive over resources, and not feel entitled to all of the things.

This whole pivot does not necessarily lend itself to my 'whatever I want' knitted assertion, but I do think it can take on new meaning today, because as a woman in this country, we're still fighting to do whatever we want, and that's absolutely ridiculous. I'm not down with a man legislating rules for my body, and I'm certainly not down with any person telling someone else how they 'ought' to be. Oprah advised me last week (btw we need to talk about that - I saw Oprah and Michelle Obama at the Barclays center a couple of weeks ago and LIFE HAS CHANGED since) to stay in my own lane and not to mess with someone else's path. I was raised to be skeptical (which turns quickly into critical --> then judgemental) of things that were different, and it's taken years of work to unprogram that from my operating system. Work in progress, but working nonetheless and getting better at it.

What we say matters, and even what our sweater says matters. A goal for me is to feel comfortable saying how I feel, asking for what I need and naming what I want, whatever it may be...

Barf, that was a lot. Let's look at fun sweaters.