Resurrecting Old Flames

   

          I've never really liked romantic comedies. In fact, I really dislike them. I watched The Notebook this past year with my cross country team and it was probably the mushiest, most implausible story I'd ever seen. I could hardly it enjoy for the sentiment of being "just fiction," because I strongly believe that fiction can often mirror reality more than reality can mirror itself -- even if in the form of fantasy. You follow? I don't make sense, I know.
     Anyway, the point is that I am really not that girl who roots for people to get back together in rom-coms, but when the people are clothes, I have a different approach. That is to say, I love resurrecting old pieces from the past. Resurrecting old pieces can be a little like a song or a smell: the melody or scent can take you right back to a place, jumpstarting the memory and a prompt escape from the current setting. This can be good and bad, and that goes for clothing, too.
     Life is quite cyclical and there are stages, and ultimately our sartorial choices reflect that. It was sophomore year when I wore my jean jacket and floral Doc Martens almost everyday. I was experimenting, but I often found comfort these chunky articles of clothing, as if they had become my friends, accompanying me in moments of excitement, boredom, and everything in between. 
       So, since it is getting a little cooler where I live and a slight drizzle -- aka "torrential downpour" in California -- has come to visit us, I dove into the back of my closest to fetch the two items I've been avoiding. I am not entirely sure why I was avoiding these items. My deduction is that, like a song that you listened to with a crush or the one that was playing in the store when you got the call your grandma died, I didn't really want to travel to the past, which would inevitably happen if I tried them on. Or, more importantly, I didn't want to stay in one period of my life. There was nothing at all wrong with those times, but it feels refreshing in these adolescent years to keep changing, to keep growing. Ironically, though, I am very much the same person in so many aspects -- perhaps it is all mental and the only things that have really changed are the shoes and the jacket. Either way, they've come out to play again. Hey, Old Flames!