6 Life Lessons We Can Learn From Carrie Bradshaw

I am a huge fan of Sex and the City. This past weekend, I discovered that all six seasons are available on Prime, and I binge watched my favorites.

As I was watching this show, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of an influence the show has had on my life. I first watched the show when the episode reruns were airing on E! in 2010. I related a lot to the main protagonist, Carrie Bradshaw. We were both emotional people, and we both loved to write. Of course, Carrie was a popular writer, while I wrote a blog that I basically forced my friends to read.

Years later, Carrie has been seen as one of the worst characters in television history for her relationships, and how she was as a friend. However, I will always love her, because she is human. And, of course, I learned a lot from her. Here’s what I learned from Carrie Bradshaw:

1. Life is Short — buy the shoes: Carrie Bradshaw is the shoe queen without a doubt. Watching Carrie treat herself to anything reminds me that I do deserve something special every once in a while if I love the item/thing that I am envisioning. Carrie is someone who reminds us that women need to treat themselves because they are special.
2. . . . But Not All of the Shoes: Remember the episode where Carrie had to buy Aiden out from her apartment and she didn’t have any money? But, she bought a ton of Manolo Blahnik shoes, which in modern day retails for $995. That said, while she liked her money where she could see them — in her closet, take this into account. Emergencies happen. Life happens. It’s important to have money in your bank account. Therefore, while it’s great to treat yourself like she does every once in a while, it’s also important to have a bank account with the money you need for those things you can’t envision so you don’t have to stress out about it.
3. Back Up All Of Your Work: Okay, I learned this the hard way as well. But, Carrie never backed up her work onto an external hard drive, and lost everything when the computer crashed. That said, I think that in the modern area, we have the cloud which has everything available. I spend $1 a month for extra iCloud storage so that all of my memories, documents, etc. It’s worth it because if something happens to my computer, I have all of my items backed up.
4. Always Put Your Friends First: The three main people in Carrie’s life were Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha. And they were her ride or dies. They are there for each other — from good times and in bad. What I like about their friendship is that they do anything that they can to maintain it. Many people often lose touch with their friends. Not them. They make it a point to see each other, to call, text, etc. And, that’s important. They are also there for each other when things go wrong. They come together when someone is going through a breakup, and they listen to them.
5. Hold Out For the One: Carrie knew that Mr. Big was the right one for her. Throughout the show, she had a hard time committing to the guy she was dating. I think that is okay. She knew not to settle and followed her heart. This is something that I think we should do when it comes to dating, because I see so many people settle in relationships that are not working for them, just because they didn’t want to be alone. I’m not saying pining for someone for several years, but I am saying that if something doesn’t feel right for you, then it’s okay to do something about it.
6. Don’t Uproot Everything for a Significant Other: In the series finale, Carrie uprooted her life to be with the Russian in Paris, even though we all know that Carrie was a New Yorker. When they got there, he ignored her. And, she was unhappy. My thing is this — if you need to uproot everything just to be with someone, than it may not work out. If you want to move somewhere to be with someone, make sure that before you do, you have a job, and ensure that you find ways to make friends. Otherwise, the only things that you have, well is that person. Never ends well. There were so many other things that were wrong in that relationship, but we’ll leave it at that.