18 August, 2011

Am I a pink girl or not?

It is funny how the image you have of yourself changes as you age and those around you age. Now, that sounds like I've having a mid-life crisis in my 30s! But no, that isn't it. Here are some examples:

I used to buy very dull colours and never red. Red, though, has made it into my wardrobe. Primarily because a good friend whose judgement I trust told me I look good in red. I now love to wear it.

As a teenager I considered myself on the chunky side. I was never model-thin. However as I've aged and despite having had three babies my weight has remained fairly stable. Now I'm smaller than many others of similar age and experience. Getting regular exercise in the gym has helped too.

I wore dresses/skirts to school for twelve years, but rarely in my leisure hours.
I considered myself an introvert for a long time. Primarily because I am shy and because I compared myself to very extroverted people. But then had a psychology assessment and found out that I actually come out on the extroverted side of things, despite my shyness and a fairly strong introvert shadow!

Oh, and in university I was a non-coffee drinker. That changed pretty early on in my working life. How it did is a story for another day.

I used to hate jeans, but after the experience of being so large in pregnancy, I began to love jeans. They made me feel so thin!

There is one bastion that hasn't totally broken down yet. As a teenager I cast myself as a non-pink girl. In fact a non-girly girl. No lace, no pink, few dresses etc. 

Last year the skirt/dresses thing was challenged by a doctor (something I don't want to go into here). And now the pink thing is being challenged. I've had family members give me pink clothes as gifts. Last year I was given a pink night gown as a gift (when I spoke somewhere). I really needed it, though I wouldn't have chosen the colour. Swimwear shopping in Australia found me buying a pair of magenta swimming shorts (again, I would have chosen another colour, but these fitted me like nothing else did). Everyone in my family was shocked! I found it hard to find non-pink socks in Australia and underwear, well this isn't the place, but there have been pink changes there too. Not mentioning a couple of washing machine accidents . . . Then this book arrived in the mail:

From time to time you will have seen book reviews here for Book Sneeze. The deal is that they will send me a free book and I have to publish a book review for it. A cool way to get free books (no postage either). I get to choose the books and I chose this one, but I wasn't prepared for how pink it was. I'm almost embarrassed to get it out of the packet, that is how strongly I disassociate myself with pink. My boys know I don't like pink things for myself (don't mind it on others, especially a deep pink), so they tease me when we are shopping! 

What things have did you believe about yourself that have changed as you've aged?

1 comment:

KarenKTeachCamb said...

I was always a blue girl, but a while ago I discovered I could wear apricots, and that pink actually looked pretty good on me too! Blue still dominates my wardrobe, but it has definitely broadened as I've aged. I also rarely wear skirts/dresses, mainly because they aren't particularly practical for me in the classroom or riding a moto, but I do like to dress up occasionally. Looks like a great book. I'll be looking forward to your review. I'm still working on "Max on Life" which I didn't received until way past the deadline for reviews so will get it done sooon. This one does look good.