Pearls of wisdom
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
1. You can never have too much glitter in your life. Or on your face.
2. If you have the option, always choose time over money.
3. Never wear anything less than factor 30 in the sun.
4. Don't read women's magazines. They make you stupid.
5. Marry the person who feels like home.
6. If in doubt, have a nap.
If I had a daughter, these are the kinds of things I would teach her about the world. None of that follow your dreams, reach for the stars, we can all be Beyoncé if we want it enough crap. I'm not buying it.
What would you tell the next generation of girls? And the one after that? What have you learned in your one messy and confusing life that is worth passing on? My list is worryingly short. I'm hoping it'll get longer over time. Maybe by the time I'm 80 I'll have, oh, I don't know, ten whole things.
This Saturday is International Women's Day, a yearly ritual that will forever be tangled in my head with blogging and with Any Other Woman. Unlike previous years, when they asked their readers and blogging pals to send in full posts on a particular theme to be run throughout the day, this time they're seeking wisdom. (Aren't we all?)
From the AOW team:
This year, on Friday, we want to do something a little different. We want to run snippets of advice throughout the day from our readers. And our question is this:
What advice would you give the next generation of AOW readers?
What do you wish someone could have told you? Email (anna@anyotherwoman.com), or tweet @AnyOtherAnnaK or @AnyOtherAisling whatever advice you'd like to give - it can be a few words, a paragraph or a whole post.You heard the ladies. Get involved.
Now here is my final piece of advice to you: if you don't already read Any Other Woman, Friday might be a good day to start.
EVIDENCE OF IWD AWESOMENESS:
and bonus kittens:→ Dear National Stress Awareness Day
Images: Vintage glittery glasses and vintage tortoiseshell glasses via Etsy. This place will fit prescription lenses to vintage frames. I suspect this could become an expensive discovery.
7 boats moored
I saw this and I've been wracking my brains about what I would say. You'd think having 2 daughters would make this easy, you'd think I'd have already run over it 1000 times in my brain. And I have, but now I'm having a blank. Pah.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough I was trying really hard to think of advice that my mum had given me, and I couldn't think of anything either. I've learned almost everything I know from my parents (see this post and this one as proof), but I couldn't summon up one single incidence of either of them sitting down and passing on some worthy snippet of life knowledge. I think, in reality, we pass this stuff on through our actions rather than our words, so when it comes to writing it down, it's really difficult. Obviously that doesn't help you with Friday though! Soz.
DeleteA newsreader/interviewer called Leigh Sales who works in Australia (and who just had a baby) nominated this nugget of wisdom from her father once in an interview: 'preparation and planning prevent piss-poor performance'. I love it, so very true. And a nice bit of alliteration.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd also say that when you're wrong, admit it. Say sorry and mean it too.
Totally agree with all yours, especially number 4.
By the way, did you end up buying the glasses?
DeleteNO I DID NOT. They're still available on Etsy, so the temptation's still there, but sadly my new super strict budgeting regime does not have a category for "glittery vintage glasses that you don't actually need because you already have a perfectly serviceable, if ugly, pair of glasses that you hardly ever wear".
DeleteNumber 5 is perfect and true. x
ReplyDeleteLove these!
ReplyDeleteI have a daughter (18 months) and have been writing down little things like this in a journal for her. The first thing I wrote was 'Don't let anyone change your opinion of yourself'. She's sassy and confident and I want to help her stay that way.
I'll be adding something about glitter when I get home tonight!