Who and What Have You Outgrown?

Year after year, the road to spring serves as a transformational period for me. While warmer temperatures try their best to fight off the harsh winter temperatures, I try my best to fight off stagnancy and anything that hinders my growth. Rarely is this process comfortable, and recently it’s involved me having to say goodbye to certain people and habits that I didn’t plan on giving up anytime soon.

When Karl Marx meets Karl Lagerfeld, I live for a look that plays on militaristic themes. This entire ensemble is thrifted, down to the loafers which I intentionally didn’t shine because the scuffs tell a story.

I’ve had to make a conscious effort to stop doing things that I’ve done for years, like overthinking and biting my tongue on how I really feel. These habits directly connected to people that became reoccurring characters in my story. I even considered some of them to be my friends, not understanding that we formed relationships off of mutual weaknesses instead of strengths. When you bond with someone over relative deficiencies, you begin to feel comfortable around them because you think to yourself, “Someone else is going through what I’m going through,” or “They are struggling with the same thing.” The problem arises when you decide to stand up and face your problems head on, or better yet, over come them. You might then find yourself in the presence of people who have made no progress, which for them, might make your growth a point of tension.

The best way I can describe this feeling is when you go from having everything in common with someone, to realizing that you two are in fact very, very different. You know that one pair of shoes, that are slightly too small? The ones you wear anyway because they are your absolute favorite, and you love how they look. Eventually you will outgrow those shoes, regardless of how much you like them. The same goes for people and habits.

Think about it, who and what have you outgrown?