We have them all, guilty pleasures. I repeat: we have them all! I repeat again: All of us! One person is ashamed of them , the other is proud of them. This is how I think about ‘guilty pleasures’.

Why are they guilty pleasures?

I listen a lot to music, mainly via Spotify and there are several playlists called: Guilty Pleasure. I once played a list and �I started thinking. There are amazing songs in this list, yet it is called a �GP list�. �Summer of �69�, �Nothing compares to you� and �Kiss from a rose�. As far as I’m concerned, beautiful songs. But also Wannabe, MMMBop and Barbie Girl in the same list, which are songs that make me almost ashamed of being able to sing them word for word. Actually pretty weird, why are you ashamed of something you enjoy? I’ll come back to this.

Ask around

I started by asking people around me. do you have any t GP�s?�My best friend told me that he loves crazy horror films like Evil Dead from 1981 and he loves green olives so much, you can even wake him up at night. The music can not be left behind: Tenacious D. I also received: Swirls of Ola, pasta, sex, chocolate, Temptation Island and once in a while watch the Disney film Mulan.

I was curious if people dared to really share their GP�s. But to be honest, most of the answers I�ve heard are abit common , unfortunately.

Is it your guilty pleasure or …?

Do you have a guilty pleasure because you think so? Or is it something that is imposed on you by the rest of the world because they labelled it guilty pleasure? Because what is wrong with the occasional munching of a bag of chips?

Or rock hard with “bad” music in the car with the window open? And what is it about sex? Sex is extremely normal! But if something is not a GP then it is sex, in my opinion.

It is also noticeable that food appears in many answers. As if that is so bad? In my opinion the �bars of chocolate, cookies, pastries and chips that were given as an answer to �what is your guilty pleasure�, don�t really count.

My GP�S

Now, let me introduce you to mine:

• I love �ice lollies in different flavors. Give me 4 of this and I will eat them all, without difficulty.
• Another one: Sushi, you can wake me up for this! I stuff myself completely full when we go to Shabu Shabu and I am ashamed when I step outside again, with my size 6 cm bigger.
• In summer �I go for a Martini Bianco with iced tea and ice cubes. Very sweet, alcohol and you drink it like lemonade.
• And Marco Borsato and Britney Spears also belong in this list.

And with this list I mean: a list drawn up because others put these things in the box of �guilty pleasures�. I personally do not see them as GPs, but because the large majority think so, you almost believe it yourself! Ok, occasionally I am ashamed of the amount of sushi I can eat, but well. That is part of eating sushi (in my opinion).

Now my real list, about things I really think of: keep the door locked and curtains closed!

• That wine on a Tuesday night after a long day at school. Together with mom on the couch in front of the TV. Delicious, but given the problems I’ve had with alcohol, it really has become something I keep behind closed doors.
• My visits to the bathroom as my boyfriend is taking a shower. Occasionally secretly checking my buttocks. Unfortunately now he knows about it!
• And my worst, most shameful guilty pleasure: a sandwich with Calv� peanut butter light and marshmallow fluff. I feel terribly guilty after eating such a thing, but I like it so much! (And I take the light one because I just like it a lot better and not because it should be better than the non-light version!)

Conclusion

Do not see your enjoy moments as a guilty pleasure because the rest of the world tries to make you believe they are gp�s. Of course, if you have such a sandwich on your list like me, I can imagine you really think you have a GP! But, �as long as you enjoy it, you should not care what others might think.! So close the curtains and enjoy your pajama day, take that chocolate bar and eat it with pride and watch that awfully bad movie with your whole group of friends. Who cares!

The songs of this week will also be “wrong”: Stacy Orrico with Stuck and Kevin Lyttle with Turn me on.

Love, Ren�e