As a junior I am a member of the 500 something most stressed out people in school. Not only am I a junior but I am a student, along with about 2100 other kids, at one of the top ten high schools in the state and while the stress at any school can get rough, everyone knows that the pressure can be intense and the workload can be high. So in the spirit of staying sane, I have started this blog to remind my fellow knights, and myself for that matter, to stop and smell the roses, take a walk in the park or watch a funny movie; essentially want everyone to take a deep breath and smile. Inspire d by the website 1000awesomethings.com, I will be posting this blog twice a week until the the end to the school year, 82 times in all, about things that are meant to make you grin. Happy moments, enjoyable memories, blissful feelings; you name it, I’ll post it. So, overall, take a minute to just relax and think happy thoughts.
Thought #12- Online shopping
Sorry, boys, but you might feel a little left out on this one.
Trips to the mall with my younger sister, a stereotypical 13 year-old, usually end in one of three ways. Option one is that one of the two of us got exactly what we needed, nothing more or nothing less; I think this has happened once and all we needed were gym shoes. In option two, both of us somehow spent all of our money and yet got nearly nothing that we wanted or needed. Option three, the more likely possibility, is that one of us got more than we needed and other, who inevitably bought nothing, is left to contemplate what to steal out of the other’s laundry.
Oh, and in all of the above options there is always something that just fits one of us really awkwardly but for whatever God-forsaken reason, we bought it anyway and we both feel guilty for spending too much money.
In short, both of us are excited at the beginning of our little excursion and are cranky and unpleasant by the end of it, which is probably why we go shopping very, very rarely.
Recently, I have had the urge to go shopping, but with nothing I need to buy, no money to buy the stuff I don’t need and no time to spend the money I don’t have on the stuff I don’t need, I am at a loss.
Now enter the beauty of online shopping.
I can seriously lay in my bed on a laptop and, do the equivalent of window shop. I do not need to keep track of my sister and I don’t need to worry about whether she is getting what she needs (selfish, I know), and I can ‘shop’ only for myself.
Except for me it’s not really shopping because I can never actually buy anything. You see, I don’t have a credit or debit card and the last time I checked the Nordstrom website won’t take my accumulation of small bills and quarters over the internet.
In my mind, this also helps my self-esteem a little bit. Being on the shorter, generally smaller side, I can have a lot of trouble finding stuff that fits and I can get rather frustrated trying on clothes that are inevitably too long or too baggy.
On the Internet everything fits.
Now, I understand that my logic is heavily flawed, but hear me out. It could very well be that the way the piece of clothing fits on the model is the way it would fit on me. And since I won’t be buying it much less trying it on I can live with the fact that it could look a burlap sack on me. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
I do have to admit that if I do this for too long I can get a little depressed. If I see something I really like I have resign myself to the fact that I will, more likely than not, never get it.
But I would like to think of it in a nice lesson in self control that I would not have if I just walked around the mall all day. On the Internet, I have the time to ask myself the questions: will I actually wear this, do I need this and can I actually afford this? Most of the time the answer is no to at least one of these and I can move on with my life.
To be honest, if left to my own devices in a store I would probably disregard this questions if I thought I wanted something and be left with a feeling of guilt and confusion when I got home.
Retail therapy must be nice for the rich and famous, but I am neither. But with Internet access and a computer, I can have a fake shopping trip right from my bed and at the end of my imaginary trip have the same bank account balance as when I left, which is really all my parents and I can ask for.