It’s finally Friday, which means a number of things. One, it’s the end of the week: there’s a whole two-day stretch of lie-ins and college brunches to enjoy. Two, it’s the last weekend before the end of term, so you can bet that the students of Durham will be out in the streets in hoards. And three, most importantly of all, it’s Treat Yo’self Friday – not quite a national day of celebration yet, but I’m willing to bet it will be soon.
What is Treat Yo’self Friday, I hear you ask? Well, quite simply, it’s the day of the week where you can buy that Toffee Nut Latte with whipped cream and tons of sprinkles in a Grande cup – maybe even a Venti! – without feeling guilty for the extra couple of pounds you’re spending. It’s a day where you can eat that piece of cheesecake from Sweet Tooth that you’ve been dying to order for weeks. Or maybe it’s just a day where you treat yourself a little bit better than you normally would – maybe you moisturise your legs after your shower, paint your nails, put on some makeup or spend extra time on your hair. The thing about Treat Yo’self Friday is that giving yourself a bit of extra care is such an addictive feeling. Eventually, TYF will overrun into Saturday, then morph into a full-weekend thing, and so on until it’s Tuesday afternoon and you’re adding items to your Topshop basket in the middle of a lecture because why not? It’s Treat Yo’self Tuesday! You deserve to buy yourself some nice clothes!
So without further ado, here’s some inspiration for this Treat Yo’self Friday. You’ve worked hard this term – reward yourself for it!
1) Take a bit of time out of your day to give yourself a mini-pamper session. Grab your best shower gel and take a hot shower, and don’t forget to slick on some moisturiser afterwards. Cut and file your nails and paint them in the most Christmassy colours you have – Christmas music playing loudly in the background is optional, but definitely recommended. Pull on your favourite clothes, dry your hair and try out that new style you’ve been watching YouTube tutorials of, and put on as much makeup as you want – you can definitely pull off the smoky-eye look in your afternoon lecture, I promise. Adding some extra care to your daily routine makes you feel amazing for the rest of the day!
2) Buy yourself that jumper you’ve been eyeing up in New Look for weeks. Sometimes you just feel that magnetic pull towards a certain item of clothing, and you shouldn’t fight it. It’s rare to find love at first sight in clothes shops these days, so grab that jumper while you can – before it disappears from the shelves and you’re left reassuring yourself that there’s plenty more jumpers in the sea (but none quite like that jumper).
3) Take yourself on a date to a coffee shop. This one’s a bit nerve-wracking, and it does take some confidence, but buying yourself a coffee and a piece of cake and settling down to read a good book or simply get lost in your thoughts is a great way to connect with yourself. Make sure you treat it like a date: get dressed up, put on your favourite lipstick and pay yourself compliments (maybe not out loud, though).
4) Treat yourself to an underwear set. If you can afford it, maybe even one that isn’t in the sale. Underwear is one of life’s greatest joys and you certainly don’t need to save your best underwear for a date. Don’t you find that wearing a matching pair of underwear gives you an uncanny sense of having your life together? A new underwear set will add to that feeling. Promise.
5) If you can afford it, and it’s something you like, why not take yourself to a night at the theatre, cinema or art museum (to name a few)? I’ve done this numerous times this term, and there’s something really nice about stepping off the train in Newcastle, walking through the doors of the Theatre Royal and feeling smugly cultured as you ascend the stairs to the cheap seats in the Gallery area. If you can’t quite stretch to a show, why not have a day out in Newcastle shopping, or going to one of their many art galleries or museums? Most of them are free and you’ll feel just as cultured, and less out-of-pocket to boot.
This is not a definitive list of ways to treat yourself this Friday, but it might inspire you to think of some of the things you like doing best, that you don’t perhaps do enough. You’re pretty special and you deserve to treat yourself as well as you’d treat others, so go forth and rejoice in luxury this Friday. And Saturday. You might as well extend it to Sunday, to be honest. It is the last weekend of term, after all.