Last summer, before my friend Jackson and I, went to camp, we went to Yellowstone National Park and bought similar clothes. Given that he valued comfort over style, Jackson only wore Adidas sweatpants and whatever clean T-shirt he had. So, when we went to sleepaway camp in the mountains, he wore the Adidas sweats and the Yellowstone jacket. I wore the same thing. We had the same motives: to be comfortable in the most comfortable thing. Unfortunately, I got very sick, so I didn’t have the energy to change clothes and I didn’t venture outside my cabin much. Jackson, however, had 3 or 4 pairs of similar Adidas sweats, so we basically were “twinning” the whole time at camp. Even the year before, I had a similar sort of fashion sense. I wore whatever shirt was at the top of the drawer and whatever shorts were clean. One day, when I met Jackson in the lobby of our hotel in Beijing, we were both wearing the “Strength in Numbers” Warriors shirts. We shrugged and started our day.

This past summer, when high school orientation happened, I got to see what the high school was like and how my peers had changed over the summer. My one friend, who exclusively wore black Champion basketball shorts and a black shirt and hoodie for his baseball team, had obviously shopped a lot during the summer. He showed up wearing “Hollister” jeans, Vans, and more brand name sort of stuff. I was still wearing shorts and a random T-shirts. In middle school, someone had remarked that I wore the same stuff every day, but I’d ignored them. I didn’t care that much for what they said, because:

they also wore the same thing every day (hypocrite)
they got suspended for trashing the bathroom so their thoughts weren’t the greatest.

But, I decided that I should probably dress more nicely in high school, and more like what my friends dressed like. So, two weeks into high school, my mom dropped me and my friend off at Vacaville Outlets. I needed more clothes, so we stopped by “American Eagle,” “PacSun” and other popular stores. I didn’t really want anything that I wanted, besides clothes from the Nike store, which is where I usually bought random shorts or shirts. I knew I needed some jeans or something like that, so I went to American Eagle where my friend got all of his jeans and picked two pairs of jeans off the wall. I didn’t know what size I was, so I grabbed something like a 26x30. I was used to medium and small sizes so I thought they were all the same. I ended up finding the right size and buying two pairs and a pair of cutoff shorts.

Once I wore jeans to school, people were like, “Woah, you're wearing jeans!” And that was pretty much the only reaction. I wore the cutoff shorts maybe like a few weeks later and then people were like, “Woah, you're wearing shorts!” That was pretty much it.

At this point, I don’t really like to wear basketball shorts unless I’m playing basketball, or it’s a weekend and it’s the easiest thing to put on. My school consists of people that wear sweatpants, people that wear jeans, people that wear shorts, and people that wear like the in-between of sweatpants and jeans—joggers. (They’re weird, like they look like jeans, but they’re made of sweatpants.) The jeans people are a bunch of girls who only wear jeans and a bunch of guys who only wear jeans. They have a higher sense of fashion, or they have no fashion—because there are jeans that your mom picks out for you at Walmart, and then there are expensive designer jeans. The sweatpant people either don’t care about what they wear, or they want to be comfortable for the rest of high school. The shorts people are usually people that are some sort of athlete and have a bunch of shorts. Or they like to show off their legs. The people that are the most fashionable are the Joggers people—their Joggers are brand name and expensive.

I first wore the “jeans that you mom buys at Walmart” kinda jeans, and those were really weird and uncomfortable. Once I bought a pair of real jeans, I just felt pure comfort. I had avoided jeans before because they were too stiff, but this was quite the opposite. I also felt more...confident. I don’t really know. I just thought I kind of looked better in new jeans versus a pair of shorts from 6th grade that I’d inherited from my cousin who probably had them when he was in 6th grade like 11 years ago. “You will look better in new jeans rather than old shorts,” I said to myself.

Despite the fact that I had changed how I dressed from middle school to high school, personality wise, I didn’t really change much. I still hung out with the same people and did the same things. I think the only thing about me which did change, was how I classified other people. Today, I see more patterns in how people dress and what they wear. A few weeks into high school, I realized that my English teacher usually wears dress pants and sweaters made of yarn. I also realized that most girls at my school wear Hollister jeans or short shorts, Converse or Vans, and a crop top or a T-shirt (with big hoodie included).

What people wear reveals their personality, their family’s financial status, or their surroundings. If people wear fancy tuxedos or tailored suits, you can conclude that they are probably rich, and they like to wear fancy stuff. If you see someone at school wearing old sweats and busted shoes, you can infer that their mom buys their clothes for them. Because, unless you’re like four years old, who wears Skechers?

For Sophomore year, I plan to just get similar stuff to what I have: white/black/grey T-Shirts with, more blue/black jeans and more Vans or NMD’s. I don’t really know what kind of change there will be. I don’t care for the ridiculously expensive stuff. My usual reaction to seeing others in expensive clothes is, “Cool, you have a ridiculously overpriced belt. That only proves nothing.” For myself, I mainly just care about what looks presentable and comfortable, and I try not to wear the same thing every day.  Last week I saw Jackson at another person's house, and guess what he was wearing? (If you’re having trouble, scroll back to the first paragraph.) You guessed it! Adidas sweats and a random T-Shirt. It’s nice to see something familiar sometimes because people can change their style to match their personality better, but, in Jackson’s case, he’s probably not gonna change until he’s in college because his style matches his personality.

When I buy clothes or plan my outfits, I honestly just want to have people not think of me. So I dress like the average person. I don’t want to show off some weird flashy article of clothing or wear something that people make fun of. I don’t want to not try, but I don’t want to try too hard. Because either way, people talk about you and what you are or aren’t wearing. But I’m going to give them as little to talk about as possible.