Little Stories

Dumplin’ By Julie Murphy

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Self proclaimed fat girls rejoice! As a girl that has always been on the bigger side of things and a girl who grew up in Texas I relate to this novels in ways I never though possible. I mean lets face it I have read hundreds of books over the years and non of the heroines in those novels are even close to being described as looking like me. Everything about Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’ is funny, heartfelt and painfully honest; from chub rub to bathing suit anxiety to feeling confident till the moment someone shows interest. I relate to Will’s journey because its a journey I have been on my entire life. Coming to terms with the way our body looks, especially in comparison to others, is probably the hardest second hardest thing. The first, at lest for me, was coming to terms with the fact other people view my body very differently then I do.

Willowdean “Dumplin” Dickinson, also known as Will,  has spent her entire life in a small town in the middle of nowhere Texas. Her mother is an ex-Beauty Queen while her Aunt Lucy never seemed to comfortable in her own skin. Willowdean on the other hand has always been at peace with her body or as peace as one can be. Then she meets Bo and her world is flipped upside down. Bo is the kind of beautiful you find on the pages of GQ or described on the pages of a trashy grocery store romance. It one thing to have a crush on a boy that you decided was out of your league and know its never going to happen its quite another to have said boy reciprocate those feelings troughs you for a loop. Like many girls Will begins to question Bo’s intentions and compares herself to the girls he has dated before and it inevitably shakes her confidence. Dumplin’ is about way more then a budding high school romance between two people you would never expect. The novel taken on what it truly means to be a so called “Fat Girl”. From dealing with a mom you only had the best of intentions, but who ultimately shames her daughter, to having a best friend who’s life seems to moving at a much different pace, to doing things that scare you because they scare the living shit out of you. I highly recommend Dumplin’ to anybody who has ever felt out of place in their own bodies.

Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi

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Choi’s debut novel Emergency Contact is without a doubt the first book I have finished in awhile. I guess life got in the way and I just kinda lost my passion for reading for awhile, but luckily it has been renewed again. As much as I love my historical romance or a good paranormal fantasy there is really nothing quite like a refreshing contemporary love story to bring you back into the folds of binge reading. I recently made a trip to Barnes and Nobel because even though I haven’t been in the mood to sit and read I am always in the mood to collect more books. On this particular trip I ended up with a total of 6 novels, but that us besides the point, one of those was Emergency Contact. An emergency contact by definition is a person that gets called well in case of emergencies, but sometimes life in general feels very much like an emergency. With the juggle between work, school, relationships, friendship and family is a delicate balancing act that trips up the most skilled of tightrope walkers at some point. Penny is a Asian- American teen that has always been wound a bit too tight. Sam is a too skinny tattooed twenty something who’s life seems to be in shambles. They are brought together by Penny’s happy-go-lucky college roommate, Jude, and they build a friendship based on family troubles, budding adulthood, and general loneliness.

Choi’s novel is a refreshing look into today’s relationships. Sam and Penny are as awkward as the rest of us when it comes to navigating a not only a friendship but a friendship that evolves into something more.  I absolutely loved the novel and I finished it about three days (work was slow but I still had to go and do something). I highly recommend it to anyone who is in a bit of reading slump and needs something to carry them out.

The New Year Cliché

This is the excerpt for your very first post.

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Everybody probably says or at the very least thinks it, “New Year New Me.” It’s literally one of the most over rated, most used clichés in the book. I mean who hasn’t thought or uttered those infamous words on the eve of the New Year or in the beginning days of January? I know for a fact that I have and in years past they have never really ment anything; I would be on track for a week maybe two and then its back to the old habits that left me feeling less than great. This year will be different (oh look another cliché, but i actually mean it this time), I need this year to be different. So far I have actually been pretty good at keeping up with my New Years Resolutions. I have experienced some minor set backs but instead of letting it discourage me I muster through. So here are my New Year New Me resolutions:

  1. Lose 100 pounds. As it stands right now I am 21 years old and 5 feet 4 1/2 inches in height and I weigh 260 pounds. This is the heaviest I have ever been and I want to be the heaviest I ever will be again. In total I want to lose 130 and pounds and I mostly just want to be fit, healthy and confident. (Plus that revenge body is a nice bonus. There are a couple of people I would like to stick it too if you know what I mean).
  2. Be Organized and Productive. I am a generally organized person (I have all my pens color coordinated for Gods sake), but I have never really used it to my advantage and harnessed it to increase my productivity. I am like the queen of procrastination; like if it was an olympic sport I would be a gold medalist. I am in college at the moment and I have lofty aspirations of becoming a lawyer, but in order to accomplish this I need to make astronomically better grades and I know I am smart enough to do so I just don’t so more Productivity and less Procrastination.
  3. Get My Mental Health Under Control. For too long I have been scared of my diagnose (I mean it is scary for young person to receive a diagnoses like that especially one that has been so stigmatized) that I have let it cripple me and the decisions I make. I have used it as a crutch and I cannot do that anymore. I will continue to go to therapy and if necessary I will go on medication. I finally have the determination to get better. I hate it when I tell people about my depression and they just look at me and say “Just choose to be happy” as if it’s that simple, as if that I choose to be depressed. Now mental illness isn’t a choice but it is a choice to get better. I full heartedly believe that you can’t just choose to be happy but you can choose to work towards happy.
  4. Get all B’s in My Classes. As I mentioned before I am a college girl right now and I need to start doing better in my classes. I recently transferred to a four-year university from my local community college and I only took three classes this semester and well I failed two and that is just unacceptable. I need to do better. I am capable of better.
  5. Miracle Morning. This is a routine developed by Hal Elrod that I came across during my decent into the planner community. Elrod is a motivational speaker and wrote the book My Miracle Morning, I bought the book on Audible and listened to it and it really resonated with me. I have a Night Owl in every sense of the word (in fact as I write this post I am in the middle of the midnight shift where I work), but I have always wanted to be a Morning Person. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE nighttime, in fact it is really my favorite time of day. The moon and stars are out, it is usually cooler outside, everybody is sleeping so you don’t have to deal with people, and I am more creative at night. All that being said morning people tend to be more productive, healthier, less irritable, and just generally happier at least in my observations.
  6. Self Love. I tend to neglect myself. I don’t make time for me, I don’t pay attention to myself and I tend to put myself last. This year is all about me, which sounds very selfish and as an only child I am no stranger to selfish, but giving your self some love is good for you. Putting yourself first on your own priority list is good for you so that’s exactly what I am going to do. So no romantic relationships (at least I wont be actively seeking one if one finds me well then it was fate) and no helping others before I help myself. I want to work on the relationship I have with my self and I want to build it up. 
  7. Get Out of Debt and Get Spending Under Control. One of the ways I console myself when I am depressed, other than eating my feelings, is buying things. New things make me happy at least for a short period of time. A bad side effect of this is buying things I don’t need/use and credit card debt. Which just adds to the stress which causes me to buy things and its a never-ending vicious cycle.