Funny t-shirts. I had probably 50+ at one time so a few times a week I'd get people come up to me out of nowhere and ask me to show them my shirt. Most people who wrote in my year book mentioned it. To be honest I really liked this "legacy" or whatever and I tried to continue it in college. No one cared. I never even got chuckles from passer-bys. I guess in high school it was funny but in college it was immature. This actually kinda bothered me my freshman year. Of course t-shirts weren't my whole identity. To people who actually knew me, they knew me for other things. But to a lot of people I was "that kid with the funny t-shirts." By the strictest definition I was popular around high school because of them, I remember getting annoyed at how often I was stopped by people who wanted to ask me about the shirts or read them. In college, at least at first, I had no identity to anyone and it sorta threw me off.

Then around year 3 I began to change my mind. Like it or not, people judge you and how people judge you affects your future. I decided that I wanted to be taken seriously by default and let my funny side show to people I chose. So now I dress pretty boring. Solid colored shirts and jeans every day. If I could afford it I'd probably be moving into polos now as well. It isn't soul crushing because i can still be funny around my friends and then walk into a meeting 5 minutes later. And I like not having to worry about who I meet. I'll be appropriately dressed for just about any everyday situation without preparing. And besides, I began to become known for other things. i quickly realized I didn't care how many people I had to say hello to as I walked across campus. Though because of clubs and different things I do end up saying hi to at least 5 people every time I walk to class (sorry guys, half of you I do not remember your names from that one time I went to chess club in sophomore year). And I like what many people know me as now. That guy who is really useful for anything besides school work (need 20 tables? done. Oh you want to learn fencing? I know a great place. Why yes, i am an archery instructor. That rock is limestone, yea I majored in geology for a while, now it is my minor. Yea I can design that website for you. No, I suck at math and can't help you study for trigonometry, but I know someone who can).

I still have my old shirts though, most of them are in a box somewhere, some of them are handy for work shirts. I am considering asking my grandma to put them in a blanket (I saw that on Reddit somewhere), but if I'm honest I probably wouldn't use it very often. Maybe they will still be funny or vintage when my future kids go to high school.

Sorry for this being really long. never really talked about my temporary identity crisis I guess and i wanted to get it off my chest.