Y’all! I haven’t been around these parts since September. Remember those days? The heaviest thing on my mind was my final semester and cool girl makeup. Of course, the election changed everything and now there’s a sense of fear and doom but also of renewed focus and commitment to Making The Change Yourself. To quote an almost-EGOT’s lyrics,

There is no more status quo

But then, of course, the next lines are:

But the sun comes up

And the world still spins

And here we are, spinning into a new year that will hopefully deliver on a lot of what we need (with a lot of hard work and persistence on our end*). I’ve been grateful to see a lot of opinion pieces about “What do we do now?” emphasizing the importance of self-care as a means to do your best fighting. It’s like the proverbial oxygen mask; without keeping ourselves safe, we can’t do a good job at keeping others safe in the long term. So in 2017 I hope you have as many goals for your internal self as you do for the world at large. Here are some of the non-political things I’m vowing to do more of next year:

Write (and read) more

This past year saw both myself and Lauren in the throes of schoolwork – me finishing, her starting – which meant that 2016 was a particularly light year on the blog. Now that I’m done, I want to reclaim some of the vision we had when we set out to create Petite Curves Ahead three (!) years ago. Regular posts, various series, building out relationships with other style bloggers, and re-engaging our community. Perhaps even taking the beta personal stylist program we launched last year for my Entrepreneurship class and making it a real, ongoing thing? WHO KNOWS. Point is: I want to do more of this here blog.

I also want to do more (any) writing separate from work and from this blog – writing for me. It has been, easily, over a decade since I’ve done this, and it isn’t going to be easy to do, but I’d like to start flexing those muscles again. The first step of this is to read a TON. I plan to devour all the literature, you guys. I’m halfway into The Sellout, I’ve got the entirety of Zadie Smith’s catalog and a mess of short stories and some incredible nonfiction on deck, and I’m pleased with this plan.

Improved maintenance

School did a number on my ability to keep track of anything but the most necessary things. I was lucky to have a partner who kept me fed and in clean clothes during that time and a workplace that was extremely supportive of my commitment to school, so I kept mostly afloat in both my personal and professional life, but nonetheless those little things I typically do to stay on top of my life tended to lose importance against finance homework and data models. In 2017 I want to make a solid re-commitment to things like going to therapy, to working out, to getting my hair cut, to preserving inbox zero, and to keeping my physical spaces (home, office, car, etc) clean and tidy.

Dress with effort

Hey, here’s a style resolution! In 2016 I looked past a bunch of great dresses and my beloved Cole Haan heels and wore ankle pants and a loose top just about every day of the entire year. Now while a work uniform was indeed one of my 2016 resolutions, when I declared that goal I had a chic sheath and classic pumps in mind, not one step up from leggings and a sweatshirt. I did a great job last year getting my skincare and makeup to a really great place (another post for another day, people) but completely ignored my look from the neck down. In 2017 I want to re-introduce intention into my morning routine and come out looking fierce. Luckily, this doesn’t require much – if any – spending, as I have all the puzzle pieces I think I need. I just need to re-commit to putting them together every day.

*Coming to DC for the Women’s March next month? Wardrobe Oxygen has an excellent post about how to prepare. 

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What are your intentions in 2017, Petite Crew?