The Soapbox I'm on Today

Merriam-Webster announced the 2023 Word of the Year. 

To win this honor, a word has to be the top searched word in the online dictionary over the span of a year. Kind of a shame the words will never know they even won and that's the kind of thing that'll keep me up tonight.

2023 winner? AUTHENTIC. 

I was real excited to pop off to y’all this morning about being authentic and hype you up because I just KNEW Salesgirl Social subscribers HAD to be among the most authentic girls in the world. Being called authentic is a dream!

Then I kept reading. And I should've stopped. Ignorance was bliss.

 It got pretty woo-woo up in there QUICK.

Certainly not everyone I was reading about felt this way, but the general tone of the authenticity movement is: This is who I am. Everything that happens to me is inevitable. I must be true to who I am at all costs.

 I’m not trying to ruffle any feathers but I really disagree, and I’m just gonna say it: A commitment to being authentic above all else, might be preventing people from becoming anything more. 

 Authentic Mexican street tacos are perfect as they are. They need no modifications. You and me are not authentic Mexican street tacos. 

 I can only speak for myself, but I could use a little work, amen. Hit me with them modiciations. Anyone who has ever told me to ~just be myself~ has come to regret it.

 Authentic Court (that’s me, hi!) is soooo chill and is the token shy but funny friend who is comfortable with the 9-5 corporate job as long as it's easy to explain to family members and offers dental insurance and a retirement package at 55. 

 Lemme try that again.

 Authentic Court (that’s me, hi!) WAS soooo chill and WAS the token shy but funny friend who WAScomfortable with a 9-5 corporate job as long as it WAS easy to explain to family members and OFFERED dental insurance and a retirement package at 55. 

 I don’t even know that first girl anymore. Thank God!!! While we're here: why did our parents make us feel like not having dental and vision insurance would surely be what took us out? 

 All that to say: I think my authenticity has evolved. I shed the shy girl skin. I shed the skin that made me scared to take risks. And I remember it feeling weird while I was doing it. Maybe even… dare I say… inauthentic?

 What about you?

 Recording a video to apply for the job that changed my life (this one) was the most unlike ‘me’ thing I’ve ever done. My friends had to be astounded that I knew how to use Photo Booth on my laptop for anything other than the Eiffel Tower filter from 2012. 

 When’s the last time you did anything outside your comfort zone? (I hope you don’t have to think too hard and if you do, that’s a topic for another day.)

 I’m willing to bet that you might have felt inauthentic when you did it. Maybe it was really out of character for who you’ve always been…. GOOD!

 You’re not being fake and inauthentic to wHO yoU aRe by calling yourself higher.

 You don’t have to be who you’ve always been. 

 We’re shedding the skins we don’t want to wear anymore in 2024. Can that be our word? SHED? Is that so gross? Whatever, let’s do it. 

 Xo, The Salesgirls 

 PS. I went down a rabbit hole and the 2022 word of the year was “gaslighting.” I hope everyone is okay. Can we choose something less intense in 2025? Lmk.