Selling Swagger

Yesterday, I was handed a bottle of Swagger.  I stared at it and asked the smiling guy behind the Walgreens counter whatever was I supposed to do with a men’s bodywash.  He simply shrugged.  Luckily, Father’s Day had just passed: I pawned it off on my dad.

Swagger.  The term resurfaced from the graves of the English language thanks to M.I.A.’s bold declaration that “no one on the corner has swagger like [them].”  The song was an instant success, and has since sparked frenzy around the 500-year-old word.

Defining Beauty through a Tainted Mirror

“I see you getting a tan.  Better stay out of that sun, girl,” cautioned the security guard at the library near my parent’s house.

“I don’t mind,” I replied, with my Texas twang  firmly intact.

I laughed to myself, remembering the pride and accomplishment with which many of my Babson peers would return from Spring Break.  “Great tan,” would echo throughout the school, between multiple parties with freshly baked skin.

Oh how differently we define beauty.