I know I am a little delayed in bringing this topic up now, considering that most schools on the East Coast begin a new year this week, but it is something I have endured nonetheless: the lure and temptation of Back to School Shopping.
Even though I myself am not going back to school nor do I have any children that would be enduring the schedule shift from summer loafing to school-time running, I have still been a victim to the countless advertisements and marketing campaigns designed to make me feel as though-- at this transitional time of the year-- I need a whole, brand new wardrobe. I can recall the days when I felt like a poor schmuck that would never succeed in my classes if I didn't have a pair of clean, white shoes to trot into school with on the first day. In some cases, if my mother could not afford a new pair for me that year, I would clean up an older pair with Windex and a washcloth until they were that satisfactory, first-day-of-school white.
Only since adulthood have I realized how those creative and cunning marketers pulled at the heartstrings of my mom who was doing her best to raise five young children and how those same marketers made me feel inferior if I was not donning the latest denim and graphic tee. It was never explained to me that these forces of being "in style" were created so companies could profit. Instead, I went around craving what everyone else could afford and feeling out of place if the new school year did not mean new clothes.
Graphic courtesy of DLife.com.
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1 comment:
this to me is the true definition of being an adult: Shedding the unfair comparisons that have plagued us since childhood.
You can still be cool without the guess, girbaud, or whatever else jeans I HAD to have (can you tell how old I am?). I love being an adult. I finally feel settled in myself for who I am, not what I wear. damn those ad companies!!
This will prove to be a very freeing experience for you. Even if, when its over, you want to (and do) go shopping.
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