Dug Up from the Drafts: "There's More to Me than Makeup" Tag

Totally random and unrelated photo. View from my bedroom window, taken in January. The window has a screen, 

hence the blurriness. I played with editing, but eventually decided on the original. I hate making posts without pictures!

Hello, dear readers,

I know this is another tag, and an old one at that, but I actually have a fairly decent reason for it. This is the second of the drafts that I promised to post. At last, my "Posts" box will be empty of anything but published blogs. I'm not changing the font on this one, because I rewrote the answers to suit my current situation. 


1. Do you go to school? If yes...what is your favourite subject/ what is your major?
Yes, I go to school. My major is Communications, with a minor in Spanish. Within Communications, I love film classes. However, I'm not going into the film industry; I just find those courses extremely interesting and fun. 

2. Do you work? If yes...what is your job?
I don't work at the moment, but I am looking for a summer job. I hope to find one, but, if not, I may end up taking a class instead. I do have an unpaid blogging internship online for CHAOS Magazine, and I'm applying for a copy editor internship at another website. It's also unpaid, and I'll tell you what it is if I get the position.


3. Do you read? If yes...name a few of your favourite books and/or magazines.
Yes.  Some of my favorite books are the Harry Potter series [in English and Spanish]; Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett; American Gods and Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman;  The Princess Bride, by William Goldman; The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory; Bookends by Jane Green; The Looking Glass Wars trilogy, by Frank Beddor....Honestly the list could go on and on and on.
As for magazines, my favorite is probably Marie Claire. 


4. Can you cook?
I can't properly answer that, because it's not that I can't cook; I just don't cook. I'd like to learn, but I lack motivation.


5. Do you have any siblings?
Yes. I have a sister, aged 24, and a brother, 27.


6. Do you speak any other languages?
If I were to be immersed in a Spanish-speaking environment, I think I would be able to quickly improve my spoken Spanish. I am fairly fluent as far as reading, writing, and understanding, but I could use more practice speaking. I've studied for a little over eight years, so I should hope I would pick it up! 


7. If you could holiday anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
I'd love to travel all over Europe and the UK, just to experience the culture and the sights [The shopping wouldn't hurt either!]. Specifically, I'd like to visit Spain or another Spanish-speaking country for the reasons mentioned above. 


8. What is your idea of the perfect date?
I don't have anything specific in mind. Honestly, I think the most important thing is that it goes well!


9. What is your dream career?
I'm not 100 percent sure, but I would like to explore the world of publishing/publications. I'm also fascinated by the idea of translating books for a career.


10. Are you athletic...do you play sports/work out..or are you a couch bunny?
I'm athletic in the sense that I love working out and keeping fit. I absolutely do not play sports. My hand-eye coordination doesn't exist, and I don't have the patience for team sports.


11. What are your three favourite things (that have nothing to do with makeup/beauty)?
I'm going to skip friends and family, because they're people, not things. As far as tangible "things," I would say film, books, and music. How much more generic can I get here? More intangible things would be singing, traveling, and working out. 


12. What is the BEST thing about you? 
I love the fact that I'm easily amused by pretty much everything, which makes other people laugh as well. That probably isn't the BEST thing about me, but it's one of my personal favorite qualities.


Ahhhh, the sound of complete silence from the "Drafts" area of my profile. How I adore it. I'm not entirely sure when I initially wrote this, but it was probably before or during last fall. Like I said, the answers are up-to-date, having rewritten them yesterday. I didn't think it would be necessary to show you the old one because things have changed, and it no longer contained inaccurate information.


Have you done this tag? I think it's fun to read about the lives, loves, and dreams of other fashion/beauty/lifestyle bloggers. We all have a certain amount of "girliness" in common, but it's nice to see what else is going on with everyone. Maybe we have more in common than we thought [or even less]! 


In any case, enjoy your day, whatever you happen to be doing!


xEsther

Dug Up from the Drafts: Accepting Who We Are...and Aren't

Hello, dear readers,

I don't know about you, but I hate having drafts floating around my "Posts" box. Until just now, I had five of them polluting my Blogger profile, so I knew I had to take action.

Three of these blogs were promptly deleted, as they were incomplete and irrelevant or merely contained a title and no content. This is the first of the two that survived. Apparently, in one of my first few posts, I promised you that I'd be writing a self-esteem series. I now believe the reason for that was because the creation of this blog coincided with the beginning of a very difficult time in my life. I was doing this for myself more than anything, to reinforce what I knew was true but didn't fully believe. Not that there's anything wrong with self-esteem posts! I just don't actually plan to do a series on the subject unless I feel particularly inspired. In any case, here is the first in my previously planned self-esteem series posts. This is very brief and unfinished, but I think the last sentence is conclusive enough for what it's worth. I changed the font just now to make the separation between past and present painfully obvious. Enjoy this snippet from January 23, 2011:



For those of you who read my very first posts, you may remember that I promised a self-esteem series. Well, I'm finally getting to it! I hope you enjoy.




Let's all take a deep breath and admit it: We've all been guilty of looking at celebrities in magazines, the girl a few seats away on the train, or even our best friend and wondering, Why can't I look like that? Why am I not as skinny, fashionable, pretty? Why does everything always seem to work out for her and not me?


I'm bringing this up because I think it's important to recognize that part of building a healthy self-esteem and self-image is realizing who we aren't in order to focus on who we are.


Who we aren't? you ask. Why would we need to dwell on that? Well, we don't, and that's exactly the point. Let me explain: Focusing on someone else and wishing you could be like them actually prevents you from improving yourself. Becoming the best "you" possible is what you should be striving for.


It's absolutely fine to be inspired by other people, but it's important to recognize that we can each only be one person and no one else.



That's all I wrote. It's short, simple, and to the point, I suppose. Granted, I planned to finish this at some point but was apparently never motivated enough to do so.

I hope you liked this little blast from the past. I'll be posting the second of my drafts sometime this week. I did actually update and complete that one a few days ago. This one remains unchanged.

Wishing you a great week,

xEsther