Costumes

Do you ever feel like you’re playing a caricature of yourself? Like, that one feature, or hobby that is particularly highlighted in your clothes or actions is all that the people you interact with will remember?

Last month I was the kind of person who is so not bothered by tornadoes she pulls her knitting out in a movie theater.

Once in college I had a friend tell me I looked like a character out of a book. Not a particular character; there was just something very storybook about my outfit that day.

There are days I dress very librarian. Days I dress hipster. Skater days. Punk/biker days. Steampunk lite days.

My wardrobe feels more like costumes for a variety of characters I have been and will be than a cohesive personal style.

And maybe that’s a good thing. A visual reminder that who you were yesterday doesn’t have to be who you are tomorrow. Humans don’t fit into neat little categories, much as we’d like to at times. We’re sloppy, confusing, beautiful messes of passions, anxieties, and experiences. Some days we’re more one thing than another. We may never get to know ourselves if we never explore all our own aspects.