What's a "Rizzo?"
Funny question this is, “What’s a Rizzo?” Well, there’s the scrappy, pizza-loving New York rat. Then there’s the saucy, smokin’, tough as nails Pink Lady. While this Rizzo isn’t exactly one of those characters, let alone anyone else, this Rizz is an archetype, a personality, an avatar that we all mingle with on the silver screen of our own life.
Rizzo is that ‘can’t live with, can't live without’ friend who’s chock full of fight, solid as a rock, bold as brass, and never looks back. Rizzo is that version of you who comes on strong and leaves the situation hot when you know what you want and aren’t going to settle. It’s who you are when you look in the mirror and you’re reflection is winking back at ya with that sly side-smile because mischief is afoot.
So What is a Rizzo?
Rizzo is you, Rizzo is me, Rizzo is WE.
Everyone’s gotta a little bit of Rizzo (or some of us, a lot). Somewhere within the mumbo jumbo of nature and nurture you’ve brewed up your own alchemical potential to be a badass. Rizzo, as an archetype or personality, is all about lassoing that tough cookie version of you and wrangling it to the forefront so that you can ride off into the painted sky sunset as the most bone fide YOU.
Easier said than done?
As Calamity Jane would say, “abso-fucking-lutely.”
A “Rizzo” is all about livin’ ace-high, and livin’ ace-high doesn’t come with a lick and promise. It’s about going through the mill of life, taking your shots, and giving them too. Showing up and doing it again. It takes a whole lotta life to be able to tell the difference between your mate’s hornswoggle, and what’s apple pie in your own heart.
And if you’re mining your own mind to strike it rich with your own inner Rizzo, here’s where ya start: be true to you, all to pieces. You can’t be a badass if you can’t tell the difference between your poppycock and someone else’s. Doggonit, own your own and pass on the rest. Play the cards you’ve been dealt and always keep one in the hole.
So don’t pass the buck, the work starts now. Grab your pickaxe and start chiseling away at all the bullshit that’s not yours. Let go of whatever you’ve annexed from anyone else along your journey, give back all the hogwash.
There will be true blue folks that love you for it, and worms in the apple who’ll try to poison you for it. But a piece of advice for the road… who cares if you’re the one with a “reputation,” after all… “there are worse things [you] could do than go with a boy or two // even though the neighborhood thinks [your] trashy and no good // I suppose it could be true // But there are worse things [you] could do.”
XO
Rizz
Photos: Tabor Bonde of With Love Photographers