These are a few of my favourite things: Posts from October 2010

So I’m halfway through the sixperiment and I’m managing. It hasn’t been quite as soul-destroying as I thought it might be, and there is a certain simplicity to it that I am embracing. That’s the upside.

I will admit, however, (on the downside) to being sick to death of the long-sleeved black t-shirt. This isn’t the exact item, but you get the idea:

Weekends are the worst. I wore the dbt (dreaded black t) everyday last weekend. I’ve accessorized. I’ve layered. I’ve belted. But at the end of the day, it’s still a black long-sleeved t-shirt and once this little exercise is over with, I’ll be more than happy to see it out with the Thursday trash, thank you very much.

Day 15 and counting.

It’s a cheap device, a little facile perhaps, but I decided to give it a whirl. I was reading Marie Clair on the weekend (the UK edition) and the headline of one of the articles was “What I would tell my 18 year-old self”. “Now that’s a blog topic,” I thought triumphantly. I didn’t read M-C, not wanting to bias myself—and I expect the writer of that article was someone spectacular and fascinating—but never mind. I decided the idea had legs.

I cannot quite picture myself at 18. But what follows are the thoughts that drift to the surface and break through into the light as I cast around in the cloudy waters of the past. I suppose in many ways I have a sense of my who I was then, and my advice is not so much an expression of regret as it is a statement of possibilities, of disdain at wasted time, of frustration at opportunities not quite embraced. And there’s a lightness here (I don’t want to take myself too seriously), and a touch of the wistful.

1. Study more; party less. Opportunity—real opportunity—is fleeting.

2. Learn to play guitar.

3. Read Plato’s Republic, as much Shakespeare as you can, Homer’s Odyssey, Virginia Woolf, the Romantic poets and T.S. Eliot.

4. Commit to memory at least one complete poem.

5. Follow your heart.

6. Don’t wear that tartan taffeta dress to JPT’s 21st b-day party: it’s hideous.

7. Keep all the mixed tapes that people make for you.

8.Don’t blow dry your hair or try to straighten it. (The curl will win eventually anyway.)

9. Wear mini skirts while you can.

10. Stay in touch with people you knew when you were a kid.

11. Don’t skip your French lab. You’ll be sorry one day that you can’t speak another language.

12. Don’t hang around with people who make you feel bad. Period.