Wisdom Wednesday: New Year's Manifesto

Happy Wednesday! With Wednesday comes the inevitable "hump day" blues, sense of disillusionment, exhaustion, and longing for the weekend. Like a good shot of espresso, an inspiring quote or piece of writing can often inspire and perk me up, ready to take on what the rest of the day and week holds. Each Wednesday here on notsosimplestyle features a few bits of wisdom on varying topics, in the hopes you may find humor, inspiration, solace and affirmation.

Rather than quotes this Wednesday, I wanted to address the whole concept of New Year's Resolutions. While we are now a solid fifteen days into the New Year and I should probably have my resolutions in hand and be on the way to executing them, I'm working on putting less pressure on myself. I guess we could call that a resolution. Too often, we assign the new year tantamount importance, capitalize it, literally and figuratively. We see it as a complete clean-slate, rather than the chance to build upon what came before, with the day itself a marking in an on-going cycle. 

In years past, I've made resolutions and kept them with varying success. This year, the urge to scribble down a list of things like "go to the gym more", "be less surly in the mornings", "learn flamenco dancing" was decidedly lacking. Although I have vowed to complete concrete tasks in the past, I always feel like I am missing the big picture. Going to the gym in not just about tightening your buns and losing the spare tire for swimsuit season; it's about self-discipline and having a long-term plan. Saying that you will call your mom x-number of times per week or have weekly brunch with your friends is not about eggs benedict or adult-child guilt; it's about relationships, giving, and communication. 

Picking easily-accomplishable, can-be-checked-off-a-to-do-list items is great. It breaks up goals, aspirations, and dreams into smaller, bite-sized snacks. But this year I want to dream big. I want to aspire to the large goals like determination, patience, and self-love. I want to examine situations throughout the year through these lenses, finding opportunities for smaller wins while ultimately working towards a larger, more nebulous goal. With that in mind, I have written something different. My list is more of a manifesto, a mission statement; something to aspire for all years, not just 2014. Because at the end of the day, life is not about eating more kale, it's about becoming who you were meant to be.

This I Vow…

I vow to fiercely love myself in all my forms, to embrace and accept the sadness, shame, pain and outrage, knowing they are only one side of the coin.

I vow always to keep my heart open, to give and receive love, ordinary and extraordinary.

I vow to pursue my dreams fearlessly, to walk a path of twists and turns with patience, courage, and self-understanding.

I vow to not be an island, but accept the help and love of others, as freely as waves upon the beach, while knowing there are some things I must face alone.

I vow to always learn and be curious, to be passionate, creative, and unapologetically genuine.

I vow to live a life bigger than the one I imagine, always knowing that God has plans, even when I can't see.

I vow to be myself and take my rightful place in the world, knowing that each day and moment moves me towards my ever-growing destiny.

Wisdom Wednesday: Change

Happy Wednesday! With Wednesday comes the inevitable "hump day" blues, sense of disillusionment, exhaustion, and longing for the weekend. Like a good shot of espresso, an inspiring quote can often inspire and perk me up, ready to take on what the rest of the day and week holds. Each Wednesday here on notsosimplestyle features a few bits of wisdom on varying topics, in the hopes you may find humor, inspiration, solace and affirmation.

As fall marches on towards winter, change is all around us. While the changing of the seasons may seem an obvious metaphor for cycles in life, overcoming struggles, and periods of rebirth; it is nonetheless apropos. I touched upon the beautiful uncertainty of your twenties in a previous Wisdom Wednesday but the notion of change as renewing and exciting as opposed to detrimental is a good idea, regardless your age. Below are some quotes about change, difficult and refreshing, for you and the world, showing us the true sacredness of the small deaths in life.


A permanent state of  transition is man's most noble condition.
                     ~Juan Ramon Jimenez


Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have.
                     ~ Margaret Mead


All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.
                      ~ Anatole France

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

                      ~ Confucius

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I change.

                      ~ Carl Rogers

Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.

                       ~ Sydney J. Harris

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.

                       ~ Harrison Ford

Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.

                       ~ Keri Russell

Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.

                       ~ William Arthur Ward

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

                        ~ Reinhold Niebuhr

Photo Diary: Falling Leaves

With family visiting, I have spent a lot of days running around the city in all its fall glory. While the colors are fading to the bleakness of winter, there's still plenty of light to remind us of the beauty of fall. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Wisdom Wednesday: Being a Twenty-something

Happy Wednesday! With Wednesday comes the inevitable "hump day" blues, sense of disillusionment, exhaustion, and longing for the weekend. Like a good shot of espresso, an inspiring quote can often inspire and perk me up, ready to take on what the rest of the day and week holds. Each Wednesday here on notsosimplestyle features a few bits of wisdom on varying topics, in the hopes you may find humor, inspiration, solace and affirmation.

This week I have been struck by the joys as well as frustrations of being a twenty-something or even a thirty-something in our fast-paced, social media obsessed, deep but shallow, grown-up but juvenile sub-world of all those unmarrieds with no kids. To be twenty-something is to be unattached but needy, adventurous but searching for a home, and trying to be an individual when social expectations seem to indicate otherwise. The quotes below reflect my meager attempt to sort out "the appetizer years" of life.


Every woman in her late 20s goes through a period where she just doesn't believe love is out there anymore, but it is. And I think the minute you stop looking for it is when it comes for you.
                   ~ Kristen Bell


When I was in my twenties, it felt like I was riding wild horses, and I was hoping I didn't go over a cliff.
                   ~ Chaka Khan


26 shows up in the middle of coffee one morning and hands you a freshly printed memo that reads: "You're going to get old one day and die. You're cool for now, but it will happen. You're officially on notice. You won't be young forever." And then 26 struts out of your office, like an unconcerned dick, having nonchalantly just changed your entire perspective.
                     ~ Jessica Blankenship

Positive, healthy, loving relationships in your twenties...I don't know if anyone would disagree with it: I think they're the exception, not the norm. People are either playing house really aggressively because they're scared of what an uncertain time it is, or they're avoiding commitment altogether.

                      ~ Lena Dunham

You'll enter your twenties as a fashion disaster and (hopefully) leave them looking fantastic. If you don't know how to put yourself together by then, I really don't know what to tell you.

                      ~ Ryan O'Connell

There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot.

                      ~ Steven Wright

The idea that people know what they want is wrong.
                       ~ Laura Jennings


Being twenty-something is all about taking it in: eating it, drinking it, and spitting out the seeds later. It's about being fearless, and stupid, and dangerous, and unfocused, and abandoned. It's about being in it, not on top of it.
                        ~ Jodie Foster


Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.
                         ~ Johnny Carson


Why is it so impossible to understand how incredible a time it is to be alive, and to be young? Why is it easier to complain about the downsides of realizing our dreams and growing into ourselves than to sing the praises of being healthy and loved enough to have it? I don't want the nostalgia and possibly, the regret of not living in the moment, to hit me all at once like a ton of bricks when I'm past the point of recreating it. I want to feel the full joy of decorating my first real apartment, of making new friends while out having drinks, of saying "I want to move" and being able to pick up and do it. The aching to return to these days of relative ease and adventure is sure to wave over us at some point, and though forgetting that is too easy, it wouldn't hurt to appreciate what we have while we have it.

                    ~ Mahalkiax3.tumblr

For these times, they are a changin'

Hi guys! Sorry for the long blogging absence. Major madness has ensued as I have recently had some life changes I wanted to share with you all! As I have previously talked about on here, I was set to move out of my apartment at the end of August. I had planned to move back into my parents' house to continue my job search.

However, on the 16th of August I had some fantastic and unexpected news! I was offered an internship position at a museum in New York City, doing what I love: archeology. In my personal life I remain as beauty and fashion-obsessed as ever but professionally I adore archaeology and all it entails. There was one challenge though...I had to be in New York by August 28th!

With tons of support from my parents and friends, I managed to move out of my old apartment and pack the absolute essentials to take with me. I will be in New York until the end of December at the very least, so three seasons had to be accounted for! I flew out last Monday as some of you may have seen on Instagram to start a week of madness.

This past week has entailed figuring out the subway, finding an apartment, starting my internship, moving into my apartment, grocery shopping for the first time, and Labor Day/birthday festivities. Hence, the radio silence...

Regular blogging will commence tomorrow but in the meantime I wanted to update you guys and share some pictures from my first week here.

Happy Labor Day! May friends, food, and fruity cocktails be in store for you!