By: Gabriela Yareliz
Have we made everything too complicated? *Plays Avril Lavigne “Complicated”*
Cigarettes are always bad, kids, but the meaning of the image above hit home with me. What the hell were we doing in the 90s? I guess doing exercise aerobics videos (remember the step?) and there were crash diets. But it was also the era of Kelloggs and Pop-tarts for breakfast, pizza at least once a week, and with said pizza— a nice crisp and cold soda.
Sure, magazines told us what celebrities were wearing, but they were reasonable outfits you could copy the concept of, if you wanted to, without shattering the bank. We wore Old Navy flip flops in every color. We found gems we wore for years on a rack in TJ Maxx, Ross or JC Penny. Or Walmart (do you remember the Olsen twins line? Omg). You could buy normal clothes where the skirts weren’t too short and the shirts weren’t cropped. You could actually try clothes on before you bought them. (Returns and shipping are an entire industry).
Work was less complicated, too. When you were at work, you were at work. When you were home, you were home.
Music wasn’t the soundtrack of memes and posts, it was the soundtrack to real life. Radio was radio, and not just one ad after another.
Things don’t get simpler— they get dumber. We get weirder and more overwhelmed and confused. What does going back to basics look like in a modern world like ours? It all feels so paradoxical—
We pause to increase speed later.
We disconnect to connect better.
We block out influences to become inspired.
What will it take? (Says me in my health protocol). Did the matcha and supplements complicate things? Or did our environment start killing us all slowly?
And to the most fundamental question of all— do I just need a Pop-tart?
GABRIELA YARELIZ 