I hate myself for loving Rachel Zoe

Yes, the celebrity stylist and designer has a flair for the dramatic. On her show on Bravo, every time she says “omigod” all lumped in together I cringe a little.

And I’m not sure she has any other way of describing her love for something without saying “I die,” which she somehow makes a compliment. And yet, I can’t get enough of her glamorous although sometimes heinously stupid life.

For the longest time, I just considered it my guilty pleasure. It’s not like I’m watching the Kardashians or anything, at least not very often, but that’s beside the point.

I realized I watch Rachel Zoe more often during my more stressful times too, which seems as counterproductive as it actually is.

I watch it when I’m doing projects, when I’m writing essays, whenever I’m supposed to be studying and lately, as I’m scheduling. For some reason, Rachel Zoe’s melodramatic account of her life helps me through my own, and it was only recently that I might have discovered the answer.

I find myself and people around me in a constant battle between practicality and happiness, but why is that even a battle? College just happens to be the perfect environment to breed that kind of inner-fight. What is my major? What is my minor? Should I tack on a business minor? Is my folklore major ever going to get me anywhere? And so many more.

These are the questions that keep me and so many like me up at night, but I don’t think we ask ourselves one particular question enough, “Is this going to make me happy?”

I’m sure my parents would hate that I have any aspirations to be anything like a reality star, especially one that describes anything glittery as “major.” But as stupid as Rachel Zoe can sound, she is a woman of a single talent and a successful one at that.

She probably shouldn’t ever do her own taxes or laundry for that matter, but is that a real measure of her success?

It seems that in this economy, our generation of college students can be obsessed about being proficient in everything to secure a job. Not even one that we want, just a job, period. But why did our happiness go out the window?

Sequins make Rachel Zoe “die,” (remember that’s a good thing) and though I don’t necessarily want my life to amount to glittery fabric, at least she fought to make her own passion her life purpose.

People love to tell me a degree in journalism won’t get me anywhere, and whether I agree or not, it might be true that the industry is in some trouble, but it makes me happy.

I shouldn’t have to tack on another degree in economics or what have you for the sake of practicality.

Why is it we feel we need to take max credits and kill ourselves with internships and no sleep?

Yes, our futures are important, but I think it’s also true we can inspire within ourselves our own level of  happiness.

For Rachel Zoe, it’s superficial — it’s true — but I shamelessly watch her show because I admire her happiness. I think I can be happy even if I do end up in a cardboard box like people keep saying I will.

I choose happiness, and for me, that’s “major.”

­— jkaneshi@indiana.edu