Excited. Free. Important.
Pants: Zara
Bomber: Forever21
Watch: Cluse
I've been dying to make this post for the past few weeks! In my last post, I mentioned needing to live a more sustainable lifestyle. If you were wondering what I meant, I meant being able to do things like eat three meals a day, write, keep in touch with friends, have a stable relationship... shower every day! (forreal).
Recently, more so than ever, I've been very adamant about fitting those things (self-care things) into my daily tasks. Now that I've sort of gotten the hang of my job as an AP English teacher and have developed some systems to keep me from taking work home, self-care has been a top priority. In prioritizing self-care within the last few weeks, March has, hands down, been the best month of the year so far. (The first few months were ROUGH; ask me about it. But I continued to keep my head and here we are now. 2017, I forgive you for taking two full months to bring me some happiness. Let's only go up from here, okay? Okay.
March Recap
First of all, I am tremendously proud of the fact that I finally have some systems down at work and do not baring work home every night the way that I used to in August-December 2016. In other words, I have time to shower every day! yay! (OK I'll stop hah).
Second of all, this month I noticed the progress that I have made with my hair. If you ever saw me in middle school and throughout most of high school, you would have never known that I had curly hair. I used to straighten my hair every single day. Literally, every. single. day. From the moment I woke up, I would pass the flat iron over every single rebellious strand, to the moment right before I fell asleep. Yes, even right before I went to sleep I made sure that every single tendril was as straight as could possibly be. The only straight thing in my life. Haha, see what I did there ;) And now?! The curls have never been so poppin'! I haven't straightened my hair since October 2016. Additionally, in 2016 I'm proud to say that I only straightened my hair twice! #Proud.
If you're interested in learning more about my natural hair journey as well as the products I use, comment below!
And lastly, this month has served as a reminder for me to continue pursuing my dreams no matter how difficult the journey may be. I've been writing since I could form legible sentences, and I've been dreaming of owning a DSLR since I was a pre-teen. Now that I am at a stage in my life where I actually have control over my own reality, all I can think about is making those seemingly far-fetched and dream-like realities come true!
Here's a great example of what I mean: I recently bought a DSLR and some snazzy equipment for it (flash, portrait lens) to nourish myself by doing the things I'm passionate about. Taking that initial step of buying the camera led me to work my first event as a photographer this weekend! A good friend mine, Brittany Barker, who is a spoken word poet and created her very own production, BlackGirl Third Space, had her show picked up by our alma mater, Dickinson College. When Brittany asked me to photograph the show the word "yes" could not have flung out of my mouth quick enough. A week before the show she asked me to attend one of the final rehearsals to take head shots of the cast and let me tell you, that Saturday morning I woke up feeling excited, free, and most of all, a feeling that I do not feel often even as a teacher, important. It felt a sense of catharsis on my way to work that morning-- not as a teacher, but as a photographer.
Wanting to give off the "cool NYC photographer" vibe, I threw on a purple bomber which had been sitting in my closet for months, tags and all. Purple usually isn't a color I shoot for when I go shopping, but I couldn't resist the slogan-- nor could I dare buy yet another piece of black or white clothing. The text on the bomber "New York is Always a Good Idea" is right! I've been to many cities, and no one hustles and bustles like us New Yorkers. We get stuff done, no matter the cost. Am I right or amiright?
So I slipped on the bomber and I swear I could hear my soul whisper to me, "finally" in relief. Finally, girl, you're feeling excited about work. You're feeling free. Important. Appreciated.
That's how we should feel every day of the week. Every day of our lives. That's the goal.
xxx
Mika
Photos by: Brittany Barker
