Once, I got new glasses

And I love them. Behold.

The reactions I've had to these new glasses of mine have been varied. Generally positive, but then of course there are those people who can't decide how they feel about them-- they're not entirely hateful, but they're not some people's taste, so they stare at them a while, considering them until they realize I've noticed they're staring. That's when they say, "I like your glasses" because they can't come up with any other polite way of telling you they don't actually like them.

True, they're men's glasses. True, they're quasi-tortise shell frames and true, they air on the side of Coke bottle glasses in that they magnify my eyeballs a little bit. But hello? Do you see many other people prancing around with glasses like mine on their faces?

Cue resounding: No!

Luckily most people laugh and say something like, "Only you can pull those off." I'm pretty sure it's a compliment, though vague. I'm not above padding my ego every now and then with stolen compliments.

But what exactly does that mean-- "Only you can pull those off." I mean, I know I have a sparkling personality and everything, and I love clothes. I'm a fashionista as long as a trend amuses me. Well, actually I'm not so much a fashionista as much as I just wear trends that amuse me.

Take, for example, the shoes I'm wearing now. They're little flat slip-on sneakers with staves of music printed all over them. I haven't sat down at the piano just yet to play my shoes and figure out what sonata is written on them, but I'm pretty sure it's Bach. I feel safe saying most musically-inclined clothes credit Bach. Anyway, I've never seen another person wearing these shoes and I think there are few people I can even picture wearing them. My sister, of course, which is why she was delighted when she saw them.

So between my music shoes, my man glasses, and many other choice items from my wardrobe, I've got myself set up to be pretty unique. But it baffles me. This term unique doesn't really have a very solid definition to me, mostly because I look around campus and see hords of students who evidently use their wardrobes for self expression. Gag. Maybe it's the traditionalist coming out in me, but I have little patience for this self expression business. It falls into the same category as feminism and songs like Take Me or Leave Me. What if I don't want to take OR leave you? What if I'm indifferent and would rather just let you be? Then all your whining was for naught, wasn't it?

Anyway, I think it goes without saying that people who are actively using their clothes as a form of self expression are trying to make some kind of statement. Usually I'm not really sure what their statement is supposed to be stating, so mostly I ignore it except to think to myself, That is the ugliest pair of furry boots I've ever seen in my life. If that's what they intended me to think, then I guess they were right on. But if we've got all of these people trying to make statements (consciously or unconsciously), then how many of those statements are actually being made? Have we just become unique for the sake of being unique? And frankly, I'm pretty sure it actually trendy in itself to be unique. If our collective goal is to revel in our own uniqueness, exactly how unique are we?

There's a paradox for you.

This is why I don't pretend to wear clothes that do anything more than tickle my fancy, aside from the basic societal and environmental need to not be naked. I don't listen to indie music because I need to be individualistic, I don't watch and claim to love ca-razy artsy-fartsy movies that will never win an Oscar because it's unconventional. I like things that amuse me. I'll like things until they cease to amuse me. This is the sole reason why I chose this specific pair of glasses.

I guess that could be interpreted as shallow or fickle. If I'm merely amused by things, exactly how deep is my investment here? But in a world where goucho pants are EVERYWHERE one summer and totally out by wintertime, I personally don't see why my "style" should aim to achieve anything beyond amusing me. I don't care if they're not "in." I don't care if I've never seen another person wearing my shoes, and I don't care if mittons are popular.

Here's the catch-- I also wouldn't care if everyone else on campus was wearing mittons like a 5-year old (or in this case, me), too. If one day I'm the only one traipsing around with these glasses on my face and then suddenly everyone else is as well, I don't care. To paraphrase one classy guest on the Montel Williams show, "I wear what I want!"

But to be clear, my glasses are not, in fact, making a personal statement. I do not wear them for any particular obnoxious form of self expression. I saw them, and they amused me, and if you don't like them well, you can take me or leave me.