Pink reminds me of joy and everyday bliss. There has always been a comforting feeling attached to the color pink. In all of its glorious shades, each one possesses a unique sentiment and nostalgia found only within the range from baby to hot pink.

Pink incorporates itself into many aspects of my life. When I was younger, I used to feel almost ashamed for liking the color because of all the stereotypes and stigmas accompanying it. As pink is always considered and known as “the girl color,” I worried I was basic for preferring one color over another. Over time, however, I have grown to love pink for all the bright and pastel shades it encompasses. In fact, as I am writing this, I have on pink nail polish, a pink shirt, and pink lip gloss. 

Pink feels like youth, femininity, and love all at once, and for every situation, I am in, as silly as it may seem, there is a shade of pink that works with it. For every day-to-day emotion, there is a color to label it with. Summers are watermelon pink, Winters are amaranth pink, Springs are bubble gum pink, and Autumns are cerise pink. Although it sounds strange to most, assigning a color to things makes my life feel brighter and brings fun to typically mundane tasks.

Everything relates to a color, from the blooming flowers of April to the scalding hot days of July. Just as people associate green with Tuesdays and yellow with Wednesdays, it is one of those inexplicable things with seemingly no reason other than a gut feeling. I have been involved in dozens of debates about the association of school subjects and colors. To me, math being red and science being green is just the immediate thought of what makes sense, but to so many other people, math is blue, and science is yellow. It is subjective to each person, which is just one aspect that makes colors so interesting. So while a multitude of colors can be used to define experiences, I currently believe that all situations can be described with pink and all of its diverse shades and tones.

Although I love pink, I have also gone through this with many other colors, like blue and yellow. Every year always has a color with it. 2022 is pink, but 2021 was all of the sage and forest greens, and 2020 was sunny and pale yellows. For each new stage of my life, I have a distinct color that reminds me of specific memories and both joyful and sad times. The color for 2023 has yet to be decided, but I’m confident it will lead to sorrowful and jubilant memories, just as pink has truly defined my year.