Make it Bright

Sometimes my whole outfit is green – from the snapback hat with an orange backpacker to my Birkenstocks. I’ve got it all: green dresses, shorts, and shirts. When suggesting I buy a deep-sea green dress, my colleague said, “don’t think I haven’t noticed your favorite color.” She had indeed noticed a favorite color, but it’s not mine; it’s my dad’s favorite color. The first 2 years after his death, I filled my life – my closet and home- with green. It’s all I bought. At 11, when we were about to move into our new house and picked out the paint color for our bedrooms, I chose a bright, vibrant purple. My mom vetoed the color. She said I’d get bored of it and want to change it. She chose a pale lavender. So instead of picking for my own room, somehow, I roped my brother into letting me choose for him, and I chose a bold blue. He never liked it. Why he was able to have a loud color, and I wasn’t, I don’t know. My sister had her room painted after college from pale yellow to muted turquoise. My childhood room is still pale lavender. This year, I’ll turn 37. My color for the year will be bright purple. Maybe I can convince my mom to let me paint my room – in her home – the color of my 11-year-old dreams – my favorite color.