There are times when a girl needs to release all her pent-up shopping energy.
And in case you didn’t know, I am, indeed, a girl.
One of my guiltiest pleasures is filling up shopping carts on online stores with really cute and often expensive things. I will do this, then close the browser window before I check anything out. Multiple times.
I wasn’t always a virtual shopaholic.
It all started one day when I sat in front of the laptop, browsing through the endless shirts, jeans, skirts, and cardigans. I slowly popped open more and more tabs. Next came Nine West, then Urban Outfitters. I became obsessed with the clothes, the shoes, the accessories.
I wanted them. I needed them. I remembered a top on Express, a pair of jeans on H&M and a necklace on Kay‘s site. The design  for the top was eccentric, the jeans were perfect and the necklace, even better. Yes, it didn’t matter the saying on the shirt had nothing to do with my beliefs or what I normally would like. Who cares if I already had a pair of jeans just like the one on the screen? And my, my, the necklace was waaaay too cheap considering the cost of hospitalization that was bound to come with it – I’d break my neck after wearing it for five seconds.
Yet, I needed it. It called out to me like a siren in the ocean.
My daily shopping trips continued until I found my own form of shopping catharsis. I headed to Forever21 online and shopped my little heart out. I filled the cart with all the spring essentials and the season’s must-haves. I customized several diamond rings and necklaces at Kay Jewelers. I filled up around five or six shopping carts at different online stores with clothes, purses and about thirty pairs of shoes.
When I was finally satisfied, I hovered over the Proceed to Checkout button, but then headed to the top right hand corner and closed the entire browser.
I realized how easily I let materialism consume me and my life. But whenever I feel like going on a shopping spree, I head to the online stores, fill up the shopping carts with everything my heart desires and then close out. I didn’t have to become consumed with materialism. I want to live by my life’s philosophies.
But for now, on my way to self-actualization, I can temporarily satiate my shopping urges by committing one of my guiltiest pleasures — pretend online shopping.
By Jude El Buri