Damn BOGO.. Every Time!

I was lying in bed last night talking with friends about tattoos and I realized how much of an impulsive person I’ve become. Infomercials? Heck yeah I need that!  Candies by the register? How did you know I needed orange TicTacs?! Dunkin Donuts? I’d like a smmmedium, uh, large iced coffee please. Ninety percent of the time I enter a store for one specific item and I end up leaving with seventeen different things that I didn’t intend to buy. Like when there’s a BOGO sale – I only need one, but it’s a sale… might as well get both!

This frivolous spending is how I have been fueling my nail polish addiction over the past few months; they are such tiny bottles, they’re so easy to lose track of amongst other things. And don’t even get me started on online shopping…

Knowing this, I’ve come up with a way to help reduce my spontaneous spending over the years: I physically carry things in my hands (not in a cart or basket) and when my excursion has come to an end, it’s much easier to decide whether I need the item in question or not (usually not). But with impulsive purchasing comes buyer’s remorse. There’s always, sometimes instant, regret after buying something I don't need. But that's what is fantastic about return policies!

I think some of the medication I take stops me from feeling rationality or fear, which is probably why I don’t overthink doing things - especially shopping -  anymore. One day during the summer I woke up one morning wanting to donate my hair to Locks of Love, so I went to my salon and chopped off 16 inches of hair that day. I decided that I wanted to change my public speaking abilities so I was put in charge of keeping 65 strangers safe and civil for 2 years when I became a CA during college. I wanted to get away from life for a while, so I packed my bags and drove down to AC by myself to spend a few nights in a big comfy bed with room service. Another time, my childhood friends and I got up one day and decided to go skydiving, so we did.

What's the totality of all this? I've learned three things: that I am a very extemporaneous person, that I'll try almost anything these days (except for food), and that I was encapsulated by social anxiety and internal turmoil. I must have seemed like a complete snob and a total bitch in high school because I never spoke to anyone, I never went out to parties, and I tried my hardest to be as inconspicuous as possible so no one would notice me. I couldn’t pick up the phone, I couldn’t drive, and I couldn’t speak in class or to my teachers. Looking back at what I’ve missed out on is disheartening because I lost so much of my life. That being said, there is a quote by George Eliot that I’ve adopted, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

This quote brings my post full circle: if I were to get a tattoo, it would be of that quote because I feel it describes my growth flawlessly. I’ve wanted this tattoo for years now, and this is the one thing that I have never and will never be impulsive about. You can’t return or exchange permanent.