HAILEYANELA

Today marks 10 years since my dad died, an entire decade gone in the blink of an eye. I felt the sadness would last forever alongside people's awkward and embarrassed apologies. Yet somewhere along the way the sorrow was replaced with nostalgia and then with reminiscence. So rather than mope over my inevitable loss I complied a list of the top 10 lessons I've learned in the last 10 years. 1. Life isn't all lemons or lemonade. It's in my lowest lows that I swear my life is cruel, that the Fates have it out for me and I'll never know happiness. It's a tart lemon sans sugar and I'm bitterly gritting my teeth. I've had to accept that not every lemon will bear lemonade, & THAT'S OKAY. Without those painful lows I'd never appreciate my greatest highs. Biting the lemon makes the lemonade sweeter. 2. Lonely & Alone Being alone doesn't directly translate to loneliness. Learn to be comfortable without the presence of othe...

Our society puts high importance and an even higher price tag on beauty. We are told and reminded from adolescence that we need to fit a specific mold and form to be considered “beautiful”; and if we don’t fit society’s norms and expectations than we are not up to par to the glamorous models plastered on magazines and newsstands on every corner. But since we have grown up and matured in this society we already believe that we need to meet their vain requirements to ever succeed in this competitive, aggressive, and sex oriented world. We should meet those standards because, let’s be real, pretty people always make it further in the job field.   Women are hired based on their looks, how white their teeth are, how smooth and poreless their face appears, how small and non-existent their waste is, rather than the job requirements. Sure they may possess some sort of stipulations that helped them to land that position, but if a heavy-set woman with frizzy hair and bad skin came in with...