Sweatpants
My wife Mykala is a woman who knows how to wear some sweatpants. As the owner of a veritable library of them (nearly the antithesis to my own wardrobe), Mykala reintroduced me to sweatpants through persuasion and sheer exposure.
In elementary school, I had these red sweatpants which I wore to school once. I’m sure no one said anything about my pants, but possessing the misplaced assumption that everyone was looking at me, ready to laugh, I was certain derisive snickers and outright insults were bound to rain down upon me. Mykala and I have a short-hand for this type of self-consciousnessness: I imagine a world where everyone has giant eyes — mercilessly following my every move. This (of course) is patently false now, as it was then. Even at my young age, I was unusually intent on details, and I think there was a small darn on one of the legs… as far as I can tell, all this freaked me out sufficiently to keep me out of sweatpants for about a decade afterwards. What a shame.
Now, returning home from school, I regularly put on my pair of sweatpants from my sister Katy — they are everything scrubs are not: warm, soft, stretchy, fuzzy, cozy.
Comments
Dan McKeown
I have one pair of sweat pants and they are amazing. I would not give them up for anything in the world. They are too big for me which is amazing and rare, and they are soft and perfect. Welcome back, Alex, the world of sweatpants is an amazing place where dreams come true. It is a pleasure to have you here where you do not need to be self conscious of your apparel.
Mykala
There is not a single person in this world who puts on sweatpants faster than I do after returning home from a day of wearing “real people” clothes. Or an hour of said clothes, really. Jeans are NOT as comfortable as people pretend they are. Thank God my work wardrobe currently consists only of sweatpants and t-shirts. Though, I think this may be contributing to my delay in getting a “real people” job.
Wait a minute. Who are these “real people” and why am I letting them make me feel bad about myself?!? :)
Anyway, hats off to your rediscovery of sweats. I was always on board.
Justin Gehring +1
The root of perfectionism is fear. Peculiarly, in this plight, your perception that sweat pants were not perfect produced a fear that resulted in the failure to wear perfectly good pants, thus ruining the original purpose of being perceived as dressed perfectly by your peers.
Perfect.
Runs Screaming
Sis Meech +1
I have nothing intelligent to add to this conversation. However, I would like to note that I enjoyed being referenced in this post :)