A Working Woman.

There’s something I love about human beings: there are a myriad of sides to an individual, a paradox to someone fitting a certain label.

For instance, I’m an old-fashioned girl who loves to rap to G-Eazy.

I’ll talk sexy to a boy and just as quickly start talking using puns and asking about cats.

In the same hour, I’ll fillet a fish and then shimmy under the bubbles in a luxurious bathtub.

Movies? My faves consist of The Shining and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

And on Christmas morning, I had a form fitting blue dress next to a men’s Carharrt jacket.

Which perfectly sums me up: I’m whiskey in a teacup.

But back to the jacket, specifically my Carharrt jacket.

It is week two of my new job as assistant manager at brew@602 and I can honestly say that I have never worked this hard in my entire life. Yes, I know I’m a mere twenty-two years old and haven’t exactly begun my life as a true adult working in the real world (whatever that means), but I know that I am working hella hard.

And every day at six, I button up my denim work shirt, zip up my men’s Carharrt jacket, and I go, I go, it’s off to work I go.

I’m a working woman wearing a working jacket and it feels incredibly empowering. I’ve always had my eye on a Carharrt jacket, always jealous of the few girlfriends I had who rocked such rugged coats, but until now, I’ve never felt that I earned the responsibility that came with wearing a jacket that was essentially created for the hard-working laborer. What’s even more ironic about Carharrt is that their history starts with providing clothes for railroad workers (and guess who’s working on the railroad? That would be me).

It feels good to get dirty, to work long hours in the day, and to grow into my responsibilities as a woman in charge. Plus, it's a nice contrast to my feminine style, a perfect uniform for a woman who's whiskey in a teacup.

I now relish the fact that I’ve earned the responsibility of wearing a jacket meant for the working woman.

I may never want to take it off. 

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Grattitude Changes Everything.

What a night.

I don't normally celebrate New Year's Eve, aside from the familial champagne toasting at midnight, but this year, I wanted to do something different.

My best friend Caroline is back in Alaska and we decided to have ourselves a rager. Well, as much a rager as two homeschool girls can afford!

As our night was settling down, we found ourselves in the steamy hot tub, resting our weary dancing bodies and having that classic tipsy talk.

It was during said talk that the question of New Year's resolutions came up.

I was stumped, and it wasn't just the alcohol. I was never one to have that "new year, new me" type of attitude, but I knew I wanted something to work on, something to look forward to and change my perspective on.

Not wanting to think too hard into it, I set the thought aside to let it simmer and it wasn't until I was changing out of my bathing suit that I noticed a saying on my vanity that rang real and true.

Grattitude Changes Everything.

That was it.

If there's one thing I've been trying to work on, it's my perspective on the present. For a long while, I couldn't appreciate where I was and what I was doing because I kept comparing it to this preconceived idea of how I should be living my life.

Like being in a relationship, living in a big city, being independent, going out, having a "real" job. I continuously made myself feel not good enough, focusing more on the negatives of my current situation instead of looking at the positives.

There's a quote in Rupi Kaur's new book, the sun and her flowers that reiterates the saying that gratitude is where the satisfaction lives.

you have so much but are always hungry for more. stop looking up at everything you don't have and look around at everything you do have.

Life becomes so much more vibrant and colorful when you start appreciating everything you have: like a healthy happy body, a safe home, a loving family, a confident attitude, an opportunity of a lifetime to a be a part of starting a family business, and an adorable cat that cuddles with you every night.

I want 2018 to be a continuation of this mindset and mentality because truly, life is so good. Obsessing over all that you haven't yet attained, comparing your chapter of life to someone else's, and focusing all of your energies on what isn't will never leave you satisfied and happy. Look instead at all the little things in your life that have all added up to who you are and be grateful.

2018, let's make this a good one. 

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