From silly email sign-off to the real message behind # BFAT ®

# BFAT. It’s not what you think!

# BFAT started as a funny note between friends and became a positive declaration on how to live each day.

If you read this hashtag as BEE FAT or BE FAT you’d probably think I’m a motivational bee teacher or a proponent of all you care to eat buffets. Both actually are untrue…I don’t eat at buffets and avoid buzzing things that sting.

Let me explain the message behind # BFAT ®.

I have a friend working on her passion projects – several friends, actually. We’re an unofficial club of men and women who mostly work at home alone and on very different unrelated projects. Still in lieu of direct co-workers we cheer each other on by sending a quick morning email or a text.  Our messages end with some uplifting and encouraging words. “Have a good day,” “Good luck with your projects,” “Hope you make your deadline,” etc. Then we go off to our respective creative spaces and do our thing.

When we do get actual face time together the gathering sort of resembles a swarm of bees to a hive. Lots of activity, chatter and the room gets energized with ideas and supportive suggestions for everyone. We leave rejuvenated and a bit “sweeter” for the camaraderie.

The term “Lasties” sounded so over…

When I started blogging  my desire was to write and connect with other people in my slightly over 50ish age bracket. The terms “Lasties” was the result of a brainstorming session to pin a time of life in the vein of Baby Boomers. I really never embraced the Lasties term. It meant  to signal the last 25 or 30 years or so of productive life. But it sounded old and final. A few people kept following my essays but not the “Lasties” I thought were my “tribe” – they hadn’t reached that phase of life yet and made sure I heard about it. I was a bit stuck to find a phrase that had meaning to me, but would resonate with anyone of any age in pursuit of the thing they always knew they were meant to do.

So one day I ended an email to a friend — B.F.A. (re: Be Fucking Awesome) and signed my name.  Another day I signed off and played with the hashtag version, # B.F.A. Over a few days I thought it read like a college degree. Yeah, I got my B.F.A. in English. You?

# BFAT made perfect sense

As a knee jerk I signed off # BFAT (re: Be Fucking Awesome Today) and she went crazy on me. She hadn’t quite figured out the BFA and now it was # BFAT and it was a bit confusing. And maybe insulting? Until I thought about it. It all made perfect sense to me. I sometimes write funny essays about my life and this was a play on words. We’re a skinny obsessed nation. Who deliberately tells people to go out and be fat?

Well, I’ve changed out the “Lasties” because I’m nowhere ready to cash it in and neither are most people I know. It sounded too much like I’d take up knitting any day now as a hobby to fill out my days. If that is you, and you knit, that’s great. I have a black wool coat and could use a scarf.

I don’t consider my writing a “hobby” or a second chance at anything. It is my core. I always knew that I knew it but for a hundred reasons found  ways to not be awesome in my pursuit. Now it’s the reason I get up each day. Whether I’m good at it or not doesn’t really matter to me. It’s the pursuit of the passion. I write every single day with intent to become a published author before I die, which could be any day now.

Writing is what I always promised myself I’d do when that elusive “someday” showed up. This is my someday. What’s yours?

So let’s call this a movement. Use # BFAT as your mantra. However it makes sense to get you into the groove of being that awesome person you know you are meant to be. Do it. Little by little. Whether you are barely 20 or an ass-kissing 90, go after that dream, passion or desire and don’t let it pass you by. That burn down deep that eats at you every day you don’t do it. Whether you spend a few minutes or hours at it, just make it happen. And…

#BFAT® (Be Fucking Awesome Today)

If the term bothers you, then look away. Or substitute any of the following for a PG-Rated version:

Fabulously, Freakin’, Fashionable, Fetchingly, Fortyish, Fiftyish, Fruitfully, Fantastically, Festively, Forever — add your own.

The T-Shirts are
here.