What would Violet Baudelaire do?

As I was walking to class the other day, my outfit started to rebel against me. I was wearing a pair of thrifted shoes that were definitely more aesthetic than functional at this point, and the sole started to peel away and do that flapping thing. Then, before I could even finish my 10-minute walk and come up with a solution, I noticed the heel of the shoes had started giving me blisters. If you saw me that day, you probably thought, "How sad".

So, when I got to campus, I decided to head straight for the bathroom and figure out my situation (just like many genius women's stories begin). I could call my roommate and have them bring me another pair of shoes, find someone with tape to have a temporary solution, or just turn around and head home for the day. However, I had a full day to accomplish, and not enough time before my first class, so I chose the diy route. I took my braid out and wrapped my hair tie around the flapping aspect of my shoe to solve the first problem, and then I searched my bag for some kind of band-aid solution to my approaching blister situation and found a beautiful pad to save the day.

As I walked to class with a hair tie keeping my shoe from falling apart and a pad tucked in cozily to my sock, I felt like a loser. However, my ego was later restored when, after hearing about my day, my friend told me I had reminded her of Violet Baudelaire from the amazing book series and movie, "A Series of Unfortunate Events".

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Violet is resourceful. She is dealt the worst cards in life and is given very little help or resources from anyone, yet she always figures out some kind of solution. She's even got a ribbon always tied in her hair that she sometimes uses as rope or string to figure out a problem. Violet is a baddie.

With so many resources at our fingertips, including websites to learn from, trade workers to call, TikTok to scroll on, and maps to follow to the nearest store with band-aids, many times we don't see the point in choosing ourselves as our first resource. Yes, there may be more traditional solutions or skilled people to solve our problems, but if a temporary or unorthodox, yet resourceful, solution is an option- in other words, when you know you can do it yourself- then I think we should depend on our own selves in those moments.

I think by being resourceful, we build trust in ourselves, even if it is just through a pad and a hair tie, and I think this can help us in a larger area of life as well. By using ourselves as a first resource, I think it becomes easier to let go of the little things in life and differentiate between the real problems around us. When we don't stress about or linger on the small problems or annoyances in our lives, I think it helps us think a bit deeper about the real problems that people face in life that are worth stressing over and reflect on the shallowness of times spent worrying or lingering on less impactful challenges we have faced.

We shouldn't live our lives caught up in the daily annoyances, problems, or challenges of life that we can handle on our own. I constantly have to remind myself of this when I forget to charge my phone every other day, and it dies before 9 a.m. It's super annoying and a little stressful, honestly, but if I take my own advice, I can recognize the shallowness of my problem, brainstorm buildings nearby that would probably have someone with an extra charger, and probably live the rest of my day with a bit more perspective about how lucky I am that my only problem today was my inability to know if someone had texted me for a few hours.

So, if you're thinking of another tattoo idea, I would suggest a lip tattoo that says, "What would Violet Baudelaire do?"