ASPIRATIONAL

A friend of mine called my attention to this blog post that mentioned Paris Hilton bags as aspirational.  My first thought was "Really? Louis Vuitton bags are aspirational but not Paris Hilton bags."  The same blogger also earlier described Starbucks as an aspirational coffeeshop.  Now that I sort of agree with.  I then got to thinking (sounding like Carrie Bradshaw), what are aspirational things?  The Oxford dictionary defines aspirational as "having or characterized by aspirations to achieve social prestige and material success".  It sounded kind of negative to me but should it be?  There's nothing wrong with working hard to achieve something high or great.  If a by-product of all that hard work are certain material things, why should anybody begrudge you that? If possessing these items make you feel good about yourself, what's wrong with that?  Maybe other people perceive it as that person trying to show off.  Could it be envy or jealousy? On the other side, could acquiring those things actually a way for them to say to other people "Hey! Look at me! I've got it made and I can afford to buy this and that."  For some people, it could be a way to appear more affluent than they really are.

I have to admit though that through the years, there are certain things that I wanted to have for myself. Sometimes badly.  These could be described as "objects of desire".  Now whether I wanted these things because I liked them or wanted to have them because I wanted to show off is debatable.  It's most probably a combination of both, though at my age now, I don't give a crap about showing off.  I'd like to think that I've become comfortable with who I am and not be insecure.  This is not to say I don't say to myself "I want that laptop or I want that sports car."  I just don't feel bad that I don't have them.

This blog entry was supposed to list down supposed aspirational items.  I realized though that different people will have different ideas about what these items are.  Age, sex, nationality, and financial capability are just some of the factors that would influence perception of that these objects of desire are. There was a point that I felt that coming up with a list would be snarky and mean.  But I figured, what the hell?  This is an incomplete compendium of what I think are aspirational (present time):

Rolex watch
Louis Vuitton/Prada/Gucci bags
Coffee at Starbucks
iPhone
iPad
Mac Book Pro
Magnum chocolate bar
Toyota Fortuner
Lacoste shirt
Beats by Dr Dre headphones

Wow! It's been 4 years since I posted on this blog. i guess blogging is not really for me. i've always sucked at maintaining a diary. i elementary school we were required to write a diary for the creative writing club. i mostly put "woke up at 6am. had this and that for breakfast. took a bath. watched tv and read this book. ........ went to bed at 9 pm." lots of nonsense!

The Third

This is going to be my third attempt at a blog. Actually, I post so infrequently, I forgot the web addresses. Anyway, hope I get to post more frequently.