In My Own Words, Lifestyle

Swimsuit Season… Uncomfortable

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I’m smiling so hard because I’m sucking in a lot.
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Tiptoes makes my legs look good. Posing so hard.
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Playing in Galveston! | Bikini Bottoms | Bikini Top

It’s swimsuit season. Although, I live in Houston, so swimsuit season lasts ten and a half months. This summer is a little, lottle, less comfortable for me. 

I’m self conscious. I didn’t wear bikinis much or at all until the summer before I went to college when I was 19. I was always a one piece girl. Partially because of my mom, and partially because that’s what is easiest to dive and jump and slide in. 

I was a late bloomer. I didn’t really hit puberty until I was 17. I was also very active and genetically super thin. For a very long time, I was a ballerina and built like it. The majority of my life, I was teeny-weeny. Then, I hit puberty, grew boobs and a butt, and gained weight. The things that happen when a girl becomes a woman. From the time I was 18 to 25, my weight fluctuated a lot. I’ve never been heavy, but when you were a size zero for a decade, anything resembling curvy was rough to wrap my head around. Right before I turned 25, I went through a huge health crisis and almost died. It’s a long story. I ended up losing a decent amount of weight and stayed there for the last three years. 

Over the last two months, I have been dealing with a lot of stress. I’m also in the midst of an anxiety induced existential crisis perpetuated by OCD. Kidding, kind of. When I’m stressed, I gain weight. A lot. And quickly. In the span of twelve days, I gained 18 pounds. Believe me, it’s possible. I’ve lost eight of those pounds, but I’m hovering ten pounds over where I’m comfortable. No matter what I do, I’m not dropping them. Ugh.

So it’s swimsuit season. I’m in the midst of an ongoing emotional roller coaster. I know I don’t look bad. I’m still on the thin side of normal for my giantess height status. I’m just not as comfortable with where I’m at in comparison to where I’ve been the last few years. I’m still going to wear swimsuits and bikinis because I’m not going to let ten pounds keep me from the cute suits I’ve spent good money on. 

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Raise your arm. Suck in. Point your toes. Your waist looks thin!

 

Books, NonFiction

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

Read Yes
Length 400
Quick Review Harari looks into the future that could be with the evolution of technology.

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Reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari in the Heights. 

Yuval Noah Harari is the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Sapiens, he returns with his latest work 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. The future is an unknown, but Harari uses his knowledge of history to look into the possibilities of tomorrow.

I am a person who is always on the brink of an existential crisis. This was a hard book to read because so much of it ran along the lines of humans may become irrelevant. Among all the other topics Harari discusses, there was a lot of pausing of the reading to collect my thoughts, have a cup of tea, and remind myself anarchy would be worse… probably.

 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a really interesting read. I can’t speak on the accuracy of everything because, well, I was battling my existential tendencies too much to research the things I don’t know. Technology, biotech, and the foundations of our society are the main concepts the book revolves around. Through these, Harari explores the meaning of how we as a civilization functions today, and how that will change as technology evolves and becomes ever more important in our daily lives, careers, medicine, government, and more.

Harari discusses everything from the job crisis to the algorithm taking over free will to the importance of AI and so much more. He uses historical references from many different cultures and times to support his opinion. Irrelevance and inequality kept cropping up throughout the text. The writing is very engaging and interesting. He writes clearly. Many books by scholars can get muddled with complicated text and references. Harari doesn’t fall into that trap. His writing appeals to the masses with a strong voice, clear message, and enough backstory to his references that they make sense.

There is a sense of humor to Harari’s writing. It usually has a dark twist, which I personally appreciate. The book is split into five parts with several chapters each. The chapters have several sections. I really enjoyed the names of these sections; they were quippy like “Germans and Gorillas” and “Artificial Intelligence and Natural Stupidity.”

I have a feeling this is going to be another highly talked about book, when 21 Lessons for the 21st Century comes out on September 4, 2018. You should definitely check it out, unless you’re hyper prone to existential crisis, then limit yourself to a few pages a day.

Buy on Amazon.com

Memorable Quotes
“It is much harder to struggle against irrelevance than against exploitation.”

Title: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau (Random House)
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780525512172