Skip to main content

Wardrobe Malfunction



"For what do we live for, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?' - Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice


   Posed as a rhetorical question, a philosophical question, an existential question, Jane Austin brings lightness to life and provides a thought-provoking inquiry to readers in just one simple sentence: Is the greatest purpose in life not to make jokes?

    Imagine this: a world where everyone is serious, straight-faced, and melancholy. I wouldn't want to live in it, would you? So it's not silly or far-fetched to believe one of the most important things in life is to tease others or make situations light-hearted. 

    I, personally, try to find the light in everything. I can't stand it to listen to others fight. It makes me uncomfortable, and I feel bad for the people bickering for being in such a negative headspace. I often try my best to interject and make a joke to lighten the mood. 

    Especially from an outside perspective, it's easy to see how certain situations are not worth getting upset over or directing anger at someone else. Oftentimes, it's just a silly mistake or problem that will end up being insignificant in only a moment's, time so I try hard to avoid these negative situations, and not let minor inconveniences take over my mood.

    On Halloween, I had a wardrobe (costume) malfunction that only my boyfriend was around to help me fix. Unfortunately, it was taking a little too long to alter my dress. I was getting frustrated because I wasn't able to take care of it myself, and I couldn't figure out how to use my words to explain to him what needed to be done. My boyfriend was getting frustrated with the safety pin, and then I was getting frustrated at him for being frustrated at the safety pin, and he was getting frustrated at me for being frustrated at him for being frustrated at using the safety pin.

    Wheewww, deep breath. I couldn't let this ruin the fun night ahead of us! I had to take a step back and assess the situation. The dress was not that big of a deal, and we ended up communicating and figuring it out! I just needed to be more mindful of how I was feeling, and crack a few jokes and laughs to lighten the mood.

    So it actually is true: There is nothing more to live for "but to make sport of our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn." 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Blank

     A blank page with no words. That's where this blog post originated from. And that's what it looked like for the first hour of its life.       That's how depression feels for me: like a blank page. When I try and speak, I can't get the words out. I'm thinking so much yet so little. I can't express what I'm feeling, there's no way to describe it, but I know I'm feeling a lot. It's an endless cycle, a giant paradox of thought.       When I first considered writing my college essays, I had no idea what to write about. Understandably, that's how a lot high schoolers I've talked to feel as well. We all just live our lives, day by day, nothing special, and we're often too busy to reflect or take note of defining moments until they've passed so long ago.       Not only was this blog a blank page, and my head a blank page, and my words a blank page, but ultimately, my life feels like a blank page. For years I've just...

It's Not a Pleasure to Meet You!

“Hi, how are you?”          “It’s a pleasure to meet you!”           “Sorry for interrupting...” It was always engrained in my mind to say these things when I talked to someone, sort of like I was on auto pilot. Truthfully, there was never a genuine meaning behind saying these things because I was so accustomed to doing the same routine over and over again. I didn’t genuinely think “it’s nice to meet you” in my mind. Even if someone is genuinely happy to meet a person, saying that common phrase does not necessarily express their gratitude, it’s more of a habit they’re used to saying on command. I was told to ask people how they are doing so I would sound polite and mature. That was simply the main motive behind saying these things: not because I truly meant it, but rather because it showed my personality to the person I was meeting. Presenting myself this way made them have a positive first impression of me. Workin...

Remaining Unmarked

What if everyone dressed the same? In Deborah Tannen's "There is no Unmarked Woman", the idea that a woman cannot get ready in the morning without marking herself a certain way was written in a negative light. However, the idea that women cannot be unmarked is an artifact of our progressivism. The freedom to wear whatever we want was not always granted. Now we can express ourselves through fashion, and create an identity that makes us proud. How we dress, how we carry ourselves, and how we act are all great ways to first showcase ourselves to others we meet. How boring would the world be if everyone presented themselves as the men in the conference did? Knowing that this essay was written in 1993, we can see how even men have started to mark themselves. It is more common today for men to be individualistic in their choice of dress, proving that being marked is not a terrible thing. Of course one could argue that the negative judgments made about women simply b...