Maarya's Musings

I grew up in a house that was always bursting at the seams. Our family of six lived in a crowded four bedroom, and I shared a room with my youngest sister. Shut doors would burst open without warning, and the house always bustled (sometimes shrieked) with the sounds of playing children - or fighting children, it was rather ambiguous. In college I lived first in dorms, in a suite shared by six girls. Then I moved to a tiny apartment in the upstairs of a large home, and had best friends for roommates. The kitchen wasn't insulated against the Long Island winters and we had to dig our cars out every week, but we stayed warm in our rooms, huddled around a space heater with the type of camaraderie that only comes with shared misery. The next year I lived in a house with three strangers, and that is when I made the decision to move across the country for grad school. I found a small studio in a four story walk-up on the North Side of Chicago, where I would live alone for the first

I'm doing my biannual (in the twice-a-year-sense) rewatch of How I Met Your Mother and there is a scene in which Ted rattles off a list of all the things he needs in his "perfect" girlfriend - she needs to be smart, attractive (okay, these are fair points) a dog person and a bunch of minor things that don't really matter in a relationship. I love this show because I think it's silly and funny and I like New York, but I hate how it perpetuates the idea of "the one" and some sort of magical relationship that gives you tingly feelings in your stomach every day for the rest of your life. Because for most of us there is no "one" perfect human being that we click with right away and live in harmony with until the end of our days. "The one" is someone you will love, someone you will have doubts about, someone who will give you both butterflies and stomachaches. There will be moments of intense infatuation, and there will be nights where

In the summer of '13 I cut off all my hair. I entered Stony with a pixie cut and reservations of having chosen a safety over my dream school for the price tag. I moved into a dorm, a suite of 6 girls, for which I still have intense nostalgia. We decorated our walls in corny quotes and washi tape, got each other hyped to sit in a stranger's car for our first ever frat party, watched the series finale of How I Met Your Mother. We did all the things you and your freshmen roommates are supposed to do. At our first Homecoming game, someone laughed when I cheered alongside the crowd. I asked them why and they told me it was funny to see the quiet girl make a sound. My heart sank to my stomach when I heard those words. Here I was, in a new place trying to be a new person, and I was still somehow the quiet girl. They say that college is where you find yourself, but I thought I already knew who I was. I was so certain that I had become the person I promised my high school self I

I've been meaning to break down my skincare routine for a while, but I just want to get a few things out of the way. First, some of the products I've linked are by The Face Shop, which I think doesn't ship to the US. However, their products are available on Amazon and some reputable Korean beauty websites (there are a lot of guides out there about buying k-beauty online, so a cursory search can help you in that department). Second, if you aren't familiar with the site,  CosDNA  is a great resource. You can just type in the product you're interested in and it breaks down the ingredient list and ranks each item individually by safety and a number of irritation factors. Okay, now that that's done, let's go! Whenever I wake up (which admittedly for me has been around 2pm lately): Clinique 7 Day Scrub Cream I shower first thing in the morning and just wash my face quickly with this while I'm in there. It effectively gets rid of all the goo I put on my