I know I haven’t been around for years: almost 4 years to be exact, so hi…how are you? This blog has been on my mind, and I’ve been debating with myself about shutting it down. After all, do I really need to continue paying for hosting when I am no longer blogging? I hadn’t even logged onto my dashboard in years, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a bunch of new comments (and they’re not spam!) and that I still get hits on some very old blog posts. This proves that nail polish is still as big as ever even if the heyday of blogs is long behind us.
So, let me see: what have I been up to? Well, I’m still working at the same place and just reached my 12-year work anniversary (yay!). I also decided to go back to school to get my master’s degree and I am completing my first year in the next couple of months. I’m crazy busy with working full time and going to school full time, but I’ve never been happier nor more inspired. If any of you stumble upon this post and were with me back when I first started my blog in 2010, you may recall that I was a complete and utter mess. I was going through a deep depression and was so unhappy in every facet of my life. Nail polish helped me by giving me a creative outlet, made me feel connected to a close-knit community, and allowed me to meet some amazing women. Although our lives have naturally taken different and diverging paths, I still keep in touch with many of them and I’m grateful to have them in my life.
Before taking my last final, my professor shared with us a message that his professor gave to him. He told us a story about how he had decided to quit law school and changed his mind after going to his last class with his favorite professor. This is the message that he shared with us:
Later this year, I will be 47. Forty-fucking-seven. Who goes back to school at this age? Is it strange to be in a class with young adults? Sometimes. Do I care? NO. I am done with being quiet and reasonable. I want to do the things that I love and enjoy my pursuits. Education has always been extremely important to me, and I am not pursuing this degree because I want career growth—although I wouldn’t mind that. What I want is to be challenged and forced to think and consider different topics. Was I excited about having to take advanced financial accounting? Hell no. Did I learn a lot? Yes, and it was actually interesting even if I will never go into finance. When are we done with these feelings of inadequacy and stop worrying about impostor syndrome? I still question myself: I’m not smart enough, who would care about what I think, why would anyone put me in a position of power? I believe in myself and I know my experience and knowledge are valuable. We all have to take risks in life, and it’s never too late. In the words of Wayne Gretzy per Michael Scott: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” You may remember how much I love The Office so I couldn’t miss an opportunity to squeeze this in.
So that’s what I’ve been up to. I still wear nail polish even if I rarely buy any, and I don’t keep up with the drama the way I used to. Who remembers Acetone Alley? Wooooooooooo! I don’t know if I am going to finally shut the blog down especially since I don’t plan to start blogging again about nail polish, but someone reminded me about my blogging today and I felt inspired to write this post. I hope someone out there reads this. I hope someone remembers me and all my silly nail polish stories. I hope you are all living your best life because I sure am.
sister. I am so glad to hear from you. When I saw this pop up in my inbox, I thought— no way! I remember the good ol nail polish days. Keeping us away from the things we didn’t want to think about. I tried stepping back into blogging and it is so different. All the platforms function so differently and I know the nail world has always been bustling, but it feels over saturated at his point. Can you believe the girlies are getting paid thousands of dollars to do what we did back then for free? Lol. Miss you. Glad to hear from you again. You wanna stamp with me this Saturday?!
Reiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Omg it’s so nice to hear from you! Yeah, the nail polish world is not what it used to be. When I quit, I had started to get paid by a few brands, and I can honestly tell you that that was part of the reason why I ended up quitting. It felt like a job because it actually did become a job. I think it’s amazing that people are getting paid fairly for their work because God knows there were days where I spent 12+ hours on those massive collections, photographing, editing, etc. I will totally take you up on a stamping mani sometime soon since I have two last projects to complete in the next week and then I have a break for…5 whole days before the next quarter begins. This life is not for the faint of hear
Oh my gosh, what a wonderful surprise to see you pop into my mailbox today!
I’m so proud of you for going back to school, that’s a huge undertaking!!
Thank you, Stacy! It’s been a rollercoaster for sure. 🙂
I did a double take seeing the notification in my inbox, after years of deleting countless spam emails and daily ads from companies I bought from once. It’s nice to see a genunie update on a blog I read regularly! It’s lovely to see you’re doing well and following your dreams! Thank you for the nostalgia!
I still fondly think of the sense of community that the ladies and gents of the nail polish world have created. Such a small thing can bring great joy to so many! Props to you for going back to school and working toward bettering yourself. We all deserve to be the very best we can be. Be well!
Glad to read your note and hear your catch up! I am still interested in nail polish and did nails for many years, it was very good hearing from you!
How exciting to see your email alerting me to a new post!! Congratulations on going back to school. I have been debating on starting my blog back up, I miss writing for fun.
Wonderful to hear from you!!!
I was a fan when you were blogging regularly. I found lots of lemmings from your info. I used to buy new colors every season, then the color selections dwindled. I now buy 2 colors on Amazon.
Wow. So good to hear from you. I followed you…a decade ago? More? I’m really proud of you. I hope you have the most amazing life.
I still paint my nails every week – pulling from my meagre collection of 400 or so – restoring as I go. I haven’t purchased a new colour in ages, I really do have enough to choose from. If you told me 15 years ago I would be saying that – I would have scoffed LOL.
All the best! xx
I am planning to go back to college this year to get a degree. I had stopped going in 2017 due to illness and a stalker. Those are both gone now. My life is back to normal thanks to my friends, my family, and the stalker’s family. His mom was a professor in my school. I have decided to take a shot at classes that I would not normally pursue. I love math, languages and sciences but I feel that art, music and theater would also benefit me.