10/23/2026
GET THE PINK TOES. 💗
Ben and I were at the mall getting Luna's passport, and the line was ridiculously long. So we wandered around and ended getting pedicures.
I'm sitting there picking a color, naturally gravitating toward the deep reds, purples, and earthy tones.
Ben says “Why don't you get something bright like pink?”
And I'm immediately like “No, that's too bright. Too much.”
And then I caught myself. I F*CKING LOVE PINK.
So why was I talking myself out of something I actually wanted because it felt like *too much*?
It got me thinking about how often we do this. Not just with nail polish, but with so many things.
How often do we hold back because we're worried about what someone might think? How often do we choose what's safe, acceptable, or expected instead of what we genuinely want?
I was at a stagette recently, singing my heart out to a song everyone knew. The woman beside me started plugging her ears and leaning away, looking pretty unimpressed.
She made a comment about how loud I was.
And old me probably would've felt embarrassed, shut up, and made myself smaller.
But I didn't. I laughed and sang louder. 😂
Because I want to be around people who CHEER when I sing. Who sing WITH me. Who dance badly, make ridiculous faces, laugh loudly, and let themselves be seen.
I want friendships where we celebrate each other instead of quietly judging the very things that make us who we are.
And I want to be that kind of friend, too.
Because we've all probably been on both sides of this. We've judged someone for being “too much" and we've been made to feel like we were too much ourselves.
And I think a lot of us have learned to edit ourselves accordingly.
Be a little quieter. A little less opinionated. A little less visible. Don't make anyone uncomfortable. Don't take up too much space.
But what if we stopped automatically doing that?
What if we got curious about the things we actually LIKE, the things we WANT, the parts of ourselves we keep putting aside to fit into everyone else's expectations?
And what might change if you didn't?
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📷: Joi Photography