This Is Defiantly Not About Hair...
It’s that time of year again: spring. When I stare out the window I can see the birds soaring high, the grass blowing softly, and most of all - for me - I can feel the warm sun throwing down on my now bleach white albino skin.
Something interesting always seems to happen during this season, and that is the gathering of students outside of their schools. The gathering is said to be caused by the suns seemingly magnetic attraction to a humans skin, the airs increased crispness after a winters cleansing, and also the smell of all things new. Some of those new things are the clothes that have been laying in their creases, dieing for the day they could set there cotton free in the wind. Drive by any high school this spring and you will notice a variety of prints, patterns, stripes and colors, from a plethora of stores.
I know this to be true because I have lived the experience. I can recall spending as much time in a mall as In would a full time job browsing the isles of countless stores each displaying their own twist on ‘cool’. Those clothes are then brought home by countless numbers of highly anticipating students, all wishing to be the center of attention in their halls.
Is it not interesting to see these different students parading around in there often over priced clothes each trying to portray their own independence, their own personality? You see the same thing in a different way if you go to a boarding school with a dress code: many of the students fight the conformity by putting their own twist to their uniforms whether it be pins carrying some self-governing slogan, wearing their pants backwards or their coats inside out.
I would like to propose a thought: what is the difference between the boarding schools uniforms and the high schools so called independence? Are they both not portraying the same images? On one hand we have the boarding school with their uniforms making everyone dress the same way having many of the students hate it. When looking into the window of the public school we see the same thing with a different twist: here instead we see the students desperate to separate themselves from each other each trying to ‘outbuy’ and ‘outwear’ the others. They spend hours at the mall waiting for the newest textiles to role off the shelves. It’s quite the cycle, but look deep into it and you’ll notice that their quest is futile: they are all inevitably trying to dress the same. So on one hand we have the rebellion out of the conformity like that of the boarding school and the other we have the rebellion in the form of conformity with everyone trying to look different but at the same time the same. Look at the new generation – my generation - they are all dressed in jeans ‘different’ jeans they say but jeans non the less. I can remember a student in high school who wore the same system of a down shirt everyday, the same black nylon pants and never did his hair. Perhaps, he was the most original, independent student in the school. He after all these years of reflection was the one person in that school of 1400 who really did fight the system, who raised his hand to those that told him to dress a certain way, or portray a certain image. If only I could shake his hand now, congratulating him on everything I could not do.
I’m not saying to rebel against everything you know and where a black sheet for the rest of your life, nor would I want you to. I for one love to get new clothes and mix and match them with my friends, but what I would beg of you is not to judge others. That was the purpose of the high school comparison, to reveal how easily we can get it wrong and have to live with the consequences of our ignorance. We are so focused on ourselves, on trying to be different that we lose the aspect of those around us. We need to humble ourselves and respect each other, being willing to admit we are wrong and being willing to embrace those that are different than each other. I’m not asking us to rebel against those that tell us what to do, what I asking us to do instead, is to humble ourselves, having a good attitude toward those that are different than us, those that do not act the way we do, and love one another as equals. Express yourself through your clothing in anyway that suits you, but be weary of why you are dressing the way you are, and embrace those around you who dress differently. We are no better than our neighbor nor will we ever be.
