• Coral Draped Top: Joie via Nordstrom’s
• Abstract Floral Print Skirt: Induetime via eBay
• Brown Peep-Toe Wedges: Naturalizer via amazon.com
• Pearls: gift from mom on my wedding day

Today, I’m celebrating something a little less culturally loaded than, well, the fact that my body is, er, not alone: my shoulders. You know, the broad, slightly aggressive ones. The shoulders I got from my mother: the ones so apparently distinctive that a former colleague of hers, upon meeting me for the first time, exclaimed “Oh my goodness, you look just like her…your shoulders…” despite the fact that my mother is shorter, thinner and blonder than I am. The shoulders that have been through the proverbial wringer of many years of rock climbing, a few years of white water kayaking and too many years of carrying overlarge bookbags. The shoulders that survived one very high tech, very painful arthroscopic repair and returned to be even more useful than they were beforehand. Those shoulders. The kind of awesome ones.

While I’ve always loved and appreciated the things my shoulders have enabled me to do physically, I haven’t typically drawn attention to them. As I, er, mature, though, this has changed: like some of the other more distinctive aspects of my appearance and personality, I’ve grown into them as time has marched on. Today’s outfit is probably the sartorial equivalent of screaming that my broad, decisive shoulders are here to stay: not only am I naming and claiming them, I’m naming and claiming them with ruffles. And points. And eye-searingly bright coral. And even on a day when it was 97 degrees and I felt like the cautionary whale, I’m having quite a bit of fun doing it, as a matter of fact! Because whether or not they’re feminine or typical, my shoulders are, well, me. I’m no shrinking violet, and neither are they.