Paint it Red July 9, 2010
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , 4commentsI’m a redhead. Kind of. I’ve always considered myself to be a redhead, that is. It’s a bold color that can be amped up or toned down, and there’s always a little bit of a mystery with a redhead. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. I’m pale with freckles, so it’s a color that manages to suit me in a bevy of shades. Want to take a trip down memory lane?
nice angles there, kate.
That was my hair color in high school. I’m not even kidding. I looked like a crazy person. I guess I was a crazy person. Also, I wore that little purple flower clip in my hair almost every day my junior year. Again, a crazy person. You really should have seen my fashion sense back then… I would wear knee-length skirts with knee-high striped socks and ballet flats. Basically, a still-wanting-to-look-goth faux-ballerina. I can’t even really justify it or begin to explain it any way better than that.
But I digress. I decided to make a change. More after the jump, as well as some more [equally hilarious, Myspace-like] pictures from days ~gone by.
The Five-Year Plan July 3, 2010
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , add a commentI feel like people in their college years get this a lot. Where do you want to be in five years? What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to do after you graduate? What’s your ideal career? What careers would you be willing to settle for? Is it a career or a job? Do you have an anxiety disorder from all these questions yet?
I’ve been thinking a lot about mine lately, and it’s one of the hardest things I’ve had to try to hammer out. How heavily do I consider a backup plan? How miserable am I willing to be to pay off my student loans? What’s the ideal situation, and how do I take that into account in relation to my backup plans?
There’s a lot of questions to consider. However, I have been able to boil it down to two plans.
The ideal right now:
Now: Apply for MFA programs this fall.
Spring 2011: Get into MFA program with full funding. Graduate with BFA.
Spring 2013 [or 2014]: Graduate with MFA.
Fall 2013 [or 2014]: Come back to Pittsburgh, work job I currently work seasonally, while applying for more jobs.
[At some point] Begin adjunct faculty work.
[All through this time period, be sending things out for, and hopefully getting, publication.]
This would, hopefully within 10 years, lead to my having enough publications [maybe a book deal?] to get a full-time position.
Backup plan:
Now: Apply for MFA programs this fall.
Spring 2011: Get rejected from programs. Graduate with BFA.
Fall 2011: Move back to Pittsburgh, work job I currently work seasonally, apply for more MFA programs.
Spring 2012: Get rejected and keep applying or get accepted, and continue with ideal plan.
People always tell me “I thought if you wanted to be a writer, you just had to write.” This is true in some aspects, but also quite condescending to hear. Of course I write. But I have to be able to survive somehow, preferably without losing my sanity.
You five-year plan really depends on you. I have friends who just aimlessly travel throughout the country and find little jobs here and there. If you’re personable and can thrive in that lack of structure, that is wonderful. I can’t quite do that, I like a plan. It’s been good to get one figured out. Now I just have to do it.
On Being Unapologetically Fat June 21, 2010
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , 2commentsI originally wrote this as an assignment for my Think Piece class. What I discovered was that it kind of became my personal mantra.
I am unapologetically fat. In this new age of weight-loss everywhere, of low-fat, low-carb, no-carb food, I refuse to stoop to the level everyone else seems to want me to. Fat is one of the last acceptable forms of discrimination in American society. “Thin” has a connotation of beautiful, gorgeous, and successful, “fat” signals lazy, undisciplined, and ugly. Maybe some of the criticism of fat people comes from a “good place,” and maybe I’m unhealthy in my fatness. But why is that anyone else’s business? It isn’t. What’s more, I feel some of the greatest critics of fatness are insecure fat people themselves.
I was watching the Biggest Loser, the weight-loss reality show on NBC, as a contestant in her early 20s melodramatically sobbed. She’d been fat her whole life, never got asked on a date, never went to a prom, never had a boyfriend, and she “wanted her life back.”
I rolled my eyes. I was fat in high school, and I had no trouble. I got asked to the prom (though, as a high school anarchist, I chose not to go), I had boyfriends. I couldn’t help but think this crying girl on television was faking. What if she was just a boring person? What if, instead of accepting or trying to change her personality, she blamed her problems on being fat? I wanted to tell her that losing weight doesn’t rid you of all your problems—in fact, she would probably just find new ones.
I hate shows like the Biggest Loser because fat becomes the enemy—the thing about yourself you should hate. If a contestant loses 5 pounds one week instead of the 20 their partner loses, they’re shamed—which only reinforces the problem of the self-hating mindset. They never sit the contestants down for a pep talk about having confidence in themselves at any size. They just keep repeating that weight loss is the only road to self-acceptance, the only way to validate yourself.
I see the looks I get from people sometimes, evaluating my hips and belly, and I wonder if they know that I ran a 5k race at Thanksgiving. But would even that knowledge change their mind? I think people are afraid that if they become fat, they will lose their friends, and all respect from other people. That wouldn’t happen with the people they already know. As for the rest? It’s their loss. Run with me.