What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?
🪞The Mirror
The oldest thing I use every day is a mirror.
It’s not fancy, there is no ornate frame, no antique charm.
Just a plain old mirror that’s been in the background for as long as I can remember.
It lived on the back of a bedroom door when I was a child, next to a pile of tangled necklaces and mismatched earrings.
I don’t even know where it came from. It was just there, like wallpaper. Like silence.
It’s followed me through every chapter of my life.
New homes, new hair styles, breakups, makeups, and breakdowns.
I’ve looked into it hungover, heartbroken, too soft, too much.
And now, years on, I still use it every day.
But I’m not talking about that glass one anymore, not really.
I’m talking about the mirror I’ve carried inside my head.
The one that tells me who I am — or more often, who I’m not.
It’s been fogged up for years.
Not with bathroom steam, but with shame.
Judgement. Projection.
Other people’s versions of me layered on like cheap lipstick I didn’t ask to wear.
I spent years mistaking warped reflections for truth.
I let people hand me their broken mirrors and called it love.
Now, I wipe it clean. Slowly. Even reluctantly, sometimes.
There are days I still wince.
But I’m learning to look again.
And this time, it’s on my terms.
Lottie x
Thirty Something Plus VAT 
What a beautifully written piece, Lottie. You’ve taken such a simple question and turned it into something profound and deeply moving.
That transition from the physical mirror to the internal one caught me completely off guard – in the best way. It’s such a clever way to explore how we see ourselves, and how much of that “seeing” isn’t really ours at all, is it?
The line about letting people hand you their broken mirrors and calling it love really hit me. I think so many of us have been there – accepting distorted versions of ourselves because we thought that’s what love looked like, or what we deserved.
There’s something both heartbreaking and hopeful about the image of slowly wiping that internal mirror clean. The fact that you acknowledge it’s reluctant sometimes, that you still wince – that feels so honest. Growth isn’t always graceful or comfortable, but you’re doing it anyway.
I love that you’re learning to look “on your terms.” That feels like such an important reclaiming of power over your own narrative.
Thank you for sharing something so personal and beautifully crafted. It’s made me think about my own mirrors – both the dusty one on my dressing table and the more complicated one in my head.
Keep writing like this. It’s special.
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Thank you so much for this, you’ve really made my morning. I love that the mirror metaphor resonated with you; it’s messy, awkward and fragile, just like real life. We all carry a few cracked mirrors around, don’t we? Here’s to wiping them clean on our own terms (and maybe not dropping the cloth too often). I really appreciate you taking the time to read and share your thoughts. It means a lot.
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