Amy Lu's View

I’ve done running streaks and writing streaks, so this year for my birthday, I tried a “fashion” streak. I wore my birthstone color, aquamarine, for 15 days in a row, starting the week before my birthday.

There was no higher meaning to my streak, besides that I’ve always been a little obsessed with theme dressing, especially in honor of my birthday, and I like taking selfies.

And I really like birthdays–my birthday, but your birthday, too. I love a little unofficial holiday and how birthdays are always popping up. I love the inspiration to celebrate all of the little things in life that bring us joy and to be reminded of how lucky we are.

Being intentional about appreciating small blessings seems especially important this year around the anniversary of widespread awareness of Covid and lockdown. My 50th birthday will always be somewhat linked to the pandemic onsent as the Chamy 50th party was the last big social outing I and many of my friends had in 2020.

This year my birthday was obviously very different and pretty lowkey, but it was also really nice–sincerely, in the true sense of the word. The weather was lovely (at least for early March) and Chad and I did an outdoor Happy Hour at a local distillery, got takeout from a favorite local restuarant, and watched the movie “Coco.” (Watching a movie is special for us because we usually watch episodic TV. And yeah, maybe a movie about mortality was a little too appropriate for my 51st birthday but it was beautiful and short and I stayed awake during it–even after Happy Hour).

So I had special drinks and food and entertainment and clothing. (Okay, not really–it was all my own “regular” clothing, but I needed some type of segue).

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The “rules” of my streak were rather haphazard and developed along the way:

• I got to define what qualified as “aquamarine” and I’ve always been very inclusive for my birthday color–everything from teal to blue-green fits.
• I had to actually wear the outfit for at least part of the day–no just putting something on solely for a selfie.
• There was no minimum amount for how much of the color I wore, as long as it was noticeable (althought it did need to be more than just jewelry/and or eyeshadow), and I did not need to be monochromatic.
• I had to wear something different every day–I could include something I wore previously, but I couldn’t wear the exact same outfit twice.
• I could only include one selfie per day (choosing the “best” was not easy! And while I do like taking selfies and am super thankful for my new phone’s portrait filter, some days I just did not have selfie-mojo so committing to one every day no matter what involves throwing out some self-consciousness).

When I started my streak, I had no plans for how long it would last, and it’s just luck (NOT fate!) that I ended up with 15 days, which turns out to be a even number of selfies to fit in a WordPress photo gallery.

I am a little sad that I have clothing that did NOT make the streak, but I ran into limitations caused by weather and working at home–some of my clothing was just too chilly or “fancy/dressy/not comfortable” to wear while working at home in early March. I also had to leave out an old beloved aqua zip-up hoodie that would have been perfect that I can’t find.

I said there was no profound significance to my streak, but is there meaning in the color aqua? Of course…if I consult the interwebs:

The color aqua soothes your soul and creates an instant sense of home and belonging for you. You are highly creative and likely discovered at a young age that you are gifted with many talents. Multiple talents are both a blessing and a curse because at times you may have difficulty choosing which one to focus on or pursue…People gravitate toward your warm and confident demeanor paving the way for you as a natural leader and communicator. You present a pulled-together vibe that attracts attention in all the right ways. Perceptive, intuitive, and sensitive you are a good judge of character and can quickly size-up any situation.

https://thelandofcolor.com/my-favorite-color-is-aqua-meaning/

I don’t know if wearing aqua for 15 days soothed my soul, but it certainly didn’t agitate it (well, okay, I did get a little stressed about what I was going to wear). I didn’t really need a sense of home since I was actually at home pretty much the whole time.

Perhaps my aqua streak is most illustrative of how I can create a sense of having a project or a mission out of almost anything. I know many have struggled with boredom during lockdown but I’ll never truly be bored as long as I have to make clothing decisions.