Do Good

This year, I have one resolution: Do good.      

I’ve never look at the New Year as a chance to start fresh with new beginnings – I’ve never counted down to the biggest anticlimax of the year, I’ve never purchased poppers and festive frilly hats with glasses awkwardly shaped as numbers, and I’ve never made resolutions.  This year is the exception. 

The New Year has never signified more to me than the start of my favorite TV shows, and yes I am talking about the quality reality television shows The Millionaire Matchmaker and The Bachelor on Bravo and ABC, respectively.  I’ve never seen a point in making resolutions; after all, what is scrawling down a list of meaningless words like work hard in school, exercise more, break out of my shell, and eat healthy foods really going to do for me in the long run?

This year, I celebrated my New Year in my room upstairs watching episodes of Boy Meets World on Youtube.  Boy Meets World is a show about the coming of age that follows two characters named Cory and Topanga through elementary school, college, and ultimately marriage.  Their teacher, Mr. Feeny also follows them throughout their journeys towards self-discovery.  In the final episode, he gives his final words of wisdom to the group: “Do good.”  When Topanga asks if he means do well, he says “No.  I mean do good.”

And then the clock struck midnight, and the New Year was confirmed with the buzz of Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin’s voices saying “Happy New Year” from the television downstairs. 

An epiphany came over me when I was watching TV the next day filled with commercials persuading me to join Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, commercials asking me to “get my life back on track” and get a degree from ITT Tech.  All we really need out of life to do good, to be good, and to spread goodness.  Doing good is the most that we can ask of ourselves to find perfect equilibrium. 

I invite you all to watch the last scene of Boy Meets World at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgbvtZAYv1g.  

Review of Miranda Kerr's Treasure Yourself

I have always admired Miranda Kerr – she is not just the glossy face on advertisements and billboards, but also a mother to her two-year old son Flynn, wife to Orlando Bloom, creator of the organic skincare line Kora Organics, and author of the self-help book for teens, Treasure Yourself.  Naturally, when I saw the pink and white book decorated with flowers and butterflies on Amazon, I just had to buy it.

Big mistake.

The book is intended to be a collection of memories and lessons geared toward the younger generation of teenage girls to inspire them by teaching lessons about self-confidence, acceptance, and inner beauty.  However, the book is really just 245 pages cluttered with clichés, awkward anecdotes that are impossible to relate to, and hand-drawn butterflies.    

This book can be summarized with the clichés: Follow your dreams!  Be positive!  Smile!  Love your life!  Love your family!  Cherish what you’re given!  Never stop growing!  Seize the possibilities!  Be grounded!  Love yourself!  The entire book was a big sugar-coated lollipop surrounded by vanilla beans, sparkles, and unicorns.  Although I could let the first couple slide, I found myself irritated by the end.  She had nothing profound to say, and while I genuinely believe Miranda Kerr is good-hearted and kind, the book felt like a celebrity publicity piece.

Reading the book was like reading a twelve year old girl’s diary.  The writing was marred with so many repetitive phrases and awkward clauses I wonder how it even passed the editing stage of publication.   In one instance, Kerr writes “If you planted your heart, would it grow?”  Maybe Kerr and I just aren’t on the same brain wave, maybe I don’t understand Australian slang, or maybe I don’t possess the imagination needed to emotionally and mentally grow from reading this book, but in that moment I had to stop reading, collect my thoughts, and push myself to finish the book.  After all, I just had to finish it.

But after a mere 130 pages, I found the last pages to be fluffy quotes and hand drawn butterflies from people that inspire her like Deepak Chopra, Steven Covey, Louise Hay, and none other than Miranda Kerr herself.  The best part of the book was the fifteen pages of personal family pictures that showed the stages of her life growing up – of course the part that didn’t involve reading. 

The book isn’t quite a self-help book.  This book isn’t quite a biography.  It is simply a marketing piece to sell her Kora Organics products that she talks about at the end of the book.  After reading it I am ready to bury it in my backyard, spritz some lemon and noni juice on top, chant some clichés over the bright sunlight and blue skies, and wait for an orb of happiness to grow into my life and bless me with her adorable dimples. 

Well that is, if “dreams really do come true.”