Gym Selfies

I've been trying to work up the nerve to take pictures of myself in public, in order to get better shots, but I haven't really had a lot of luck. I also loaned out my camera to a friend, so I'm trying to make do with cell phone pictures for the time being. This means that sometimes my outfit of the day is a selfie in the gym.

My job is the main motivator for dressing well each day. I work in a business casual environment, so I actually have to put some thought into dressing each day. Couple the fact that my office is usually about 67 degrees in the mornings (why?!?!) with the outside weather being Oklahoma extreme, and the result is usually something like this.

Cardigan: Forever 21
Tank: Talbot brand (thrifted)
Skirt : Brand unknown (thrifted)
Tights: Target
Boots: Dublin paddock boots

Technically, It's Salmon.

I was not a very coordinated kid. Movements, colors, emotions - everything was thrown into a giant blender and then smashed into my brain and my perception of the world. When I was little, my mother recalls how I used to demand that all of my dresses 'twirled'; by age 12, I wouldn't have been caught dead in a dress, let alone anything fancy-schmancy. Black band t-shirts and scruffy jeans were my thing and I loathed the color pink.

Around the time of my freshman year of college, I began to explore a little more. I grew to admire some of my contemporaries and the statements they could make about themselves just by choosing a different pattern than what I'd seen before. I tried to imitate them and failed. Then, I chopped off my ridiculously long hair to a pixie cut, and suddenly, finally, I felt like me.

In the long and short of it - I've been on a journey of finding my own confidence, escaping self-consciousness. Perceptions of myself and what I should be have clouded my judgement. But now, I want to take these ideas, use them, and see what happens. I feel like life is too short to limit myself to one viewpoint, one style, one routine, and I'd like to begin documenting my discoveries.

I put on this dress two days ago and realized that fifteen year old me would have gagged. I hate the color pink, after all. But this color? Well, technically, it's salmon.