"What's that I hear you say - a blog post about materialism?! Ground-breaking stuff!"

OK, as per the title, this blog post is centred around materialism and the retail sector in general and my experiences with it (I felt the need to comment after having been shopping today - something I do too much of recently...)


"In 2009, UK retail sales were over £285billion and are growing, despite the economic downturn in 2007. During 2010, the industry created an extra 12,750 full-time jobs, a 2.1% increase on the previous year." (source: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/industries_retail_overview.htm) 

See look: These people are clearly having fun shopping. What's the harm in it... ?!
(aside from them not wearing many clothes... o.O) 

For me personally, (from early childhood) shopping had been both a stressful and boring experience. Being dragged around shopping centres by embarrassing parents was seen as an essential Saturday ordeal. So when did things change for me? When did I start worrying about colour combinations of ties/shirts/trousers so much? 

This is all well and good, but it doesn't have
anything to do with... anything.

Probably sometime after I got my first part-time job. Earning money meant I could buy my own clothes, without the aforementioned "dragging." I was able to express myself through my clothes as an extension of my - as yet unformed - pre-adolescent personality.

Exacerbating this facet of my new life came university - a time of change and reformation. A chance to indulge myself in even more costly "expressions of personality." Thankfully, student loans come in handy... I have reached the point where I ask myself: "How many ties is too many ties?!" The answer is most definitely 5 (my current total), ranging from white, light grey, grey, dark grey, and black (I know you didn't ask, I'm spreading this news as a warning, not as a form of bragging).

I don't really know what I'm trying to say really... I think without realising it, I did a massive U-turn. I don't remember if the point of this post was for or against shopping. All I'm thinking about is trying on my new clothes... D:

yayy... ¬¬

(also - cats) 

Fear.

Fear: a negative emotion induced by a perceived external threat.

Today is Friday the 13th of May 2011. A day viewed by many as a source of paranoia, anxiety and/or fear. Phobias come in many varieties, from the common arachnophobia - fear of spiders, to the hilarious (but completely understandable - these things are scary as) zemmiphobia - the fear of the great mole rat. There's even a phobia concerning this very day: friggatriskaidekaphobia - the fear of Friday the 13th. 

How people deal and cope with fears differs from person to person. How can one person, for instance, happily touch a tarantula but be defeated at the thought of touching cotton wool? I believe that fear manifests itself as a symptom of hormonal imbalance; One person may be more genetically inclined to develop phobias than others.

However, I don't know anywhere near enough about psycho-biology to comment on that. 

What I do know is that there are people out there who are scared. Scared of things that other people may belittle, or scared to show their emotions to others, or even too scared to admit that they have these fears in the first place. And what happens to those people that are scared of themselves? To look in the mirror everyday and hate the person staring back at them because they find certain aspects of themselves too hard to accept. 

I'm not suggesting that this type of fear is easily overcome. What I would like to say is, however you deal (or, as the case may be, not deal) with fear, it's important to not let it rule your life, or indeed, stop it from letting you become - in the immortal words of the great Jessie J - who you are... even though I've probably heard several other people say that... :|

Yep, I defo just crossed the threshold into ULTIMATE cheese :)

(also - are the cool kids still saying "defo" these days?!)