The Rumors Are True

comparison is truly a thief of joy

Earlier this week, I was scrolling on TikTok and a video compilation of outfits appeared on my For You page. One of the outfits was paired with a beautiful pair of cowboy boots. They immediately caught my eye and I needed to know where they were from. The comments delivered and it turns out they were the Annie from Tecovas — the same pair I bought last summer, just in a different shade. The video made them appear to be a rich chocolatey brown, almost black. I immediately went to the Tecovas website and fell ever more in love with the color as I incessantly scrolled through all the pictures.

Image credit via pins.

I pulled mine out of the closet to put on and was feeling a little disappointed that this color didn’t exist (or I missed it!) when I was trying them on last year. I thought “well, maybe I can sell them” and buy this other color that I so quickly came to love. I showed my husband and said “if only I would have bought this color…” to which he quickly responded “why are you wishing you had a color that didn’t exist last year?” Facts were spoken and quickly dismissed. I continued researching how much I could sell mine for and looked for used options on Poshmark. Mind you this was all before even seeing them in person.

As luck would have it, we found ourselves running an errand near a Tecovas store later that day. We had been meaning to go in because my husband wanted a pair of cowboy boots. Side note: it took him 6 years of living in Austin to finally consider them. While he was trying on several options, I took the opportunity to compare the chocolatey color to mine. If you’re curious, my husband went with the Jack. 

I need Tecovas to release this color way in the Annie. These are 3” inches taller. Great if you’re a tall gal or if you like knee high boots.

After spotting them on the shelf and asking to try them on, I was perplexed. The color didn’t look the same as it did online. I tried them on anyway. In my head I had created this idea of how they would look because of the video I saw online. I didn’t even stop to question the lighting or how video editing could affect the true color of the boots. Or how when you’re up close to the boots you can easily see the creases and over time you get a patina rich color (I think this is what I had spotted online). I wanted an immediate outcome. I wanted to swap for something that would take months if not years to have.

In that moment, I was transported back to how I spent a day and a half pondering what I could have done differently — only to find myself back in the same place I was originally, loving the boots I had initially bought. It felt like I had betrayed my initial love for the color I had chosen a year ago.

The left boot is the Sequoia color (mine) and the right boot is the Cafe color.

It’s hard not to compare yourself to others or create this ideal scenario in your head. But what if instead of thinking “if only..” we just enjoyed the very thing we have. I think with shopping and ordering things online, it’s easy to think “what if I had X” but as my husband likes to remind me “you made the best choice for yourself at the time with the information you had.” If I had focused on enjoying what I had instead of how something looks on someone else or how on trend it is then I would have realized I was already winning. This is a reminder that your authentic excitement, love and opinion will never go out of style because you as an individual — can’t go out of style.

Last summer, wearing them for the first time and feeling beautiful.

In short, if we focus on buying something we love, our style may evolve but parts of us will remain the same while others get stretched to a new us. So the rumors are true, if you compare yourself to others, create fake scenarios in your head or think “I really should have gotten this instead,” you’re doing yourself a disservice and just robbing yourself of the joy an item brought you when you bought it and when you wear it. So this is your reminder that comparing yourself or the things you have to other people, while certainly a great way to evolve our style, can easily also rob us of our joy.

All items featured items linked here. 

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I hope you don’t fall into the same trap as me — the best things we have can already be found in our closet.

xx Ofelia

Disclaimer: some links are affiliate links, which means I may receive a very small percentage from a sale. As always, anything that is linked are things I either own or recommend.