> CD #33: Formative years

I’ve been thinking a lot about junior high school and what a formative time it was for so many of us. Those three short years had such an outsized influence my identity, and I think my experiences in Grades 7–9 still affect how I see myself and how I imagine others see me.

It won’t surprise you to hear I was a huge nerd who felt like an outsider most of the time. My entire junior high experience can probably be boiled down to one word: longing. Longing to belong. Longing to be more. Longing to be somebody else altogether.

Also, longing for cool clothes.

Even though I was a smart girl, I somehow believed that clothes might hold the answer to all my adolescent problems (forgetting that I had glasses, braces, acne, frizzy hair, and social anxiety). If only I had the right clothes, everything would be different. What were the right clothes, exactly? Well, let me tell ya:

• Levi’s 501s with the red tab (I had a pair of orange tabs… so not the same)

• Chip & Pepper shirts (watch the entire video—you won’t regret it)

• Heat-sensitive Hypercolor shirts (whyyy)

• Sweatshirts from Au Coton or Cotton Ginny (Canadian mall brands were obsessed with cotton, apparently)

• Doc Martens shoes (those yellow stitches)

Of course, I had none of these things. My own wardrobe consisted mostly of K-Mart specials and my mother’s hand-me-downs. The only potentially cool items I owned were a Sun Ice ski jacket (purple and neon pink 4eva!!) and a couple of politically aware, embarrassingly earnest statement tees from The Body Shop.

Now that I’m fully grown, you’d think I’d be over the deprivations of my youth, but you would be wrong. I still occasionally search eBay for coveted items, and a few years ago, I was rewarded with this never-worn reissued Club Monaco logo sweatshirt, based on a CanCon staple from the early 90s.

Tell 13-year-old Teresa that some dreams do come true.

It’s a men’s size XS and kind of big on me, but I don’t care. Everything I wore in junior high was at least two sizes too large for my body anyway, so it totally works.

Now all I need is every outfit from this video and I’ll be set:

Zappin' it to ya!

:) Teresa

ps. If you are Canadian and thinking about the 215, here is something to read and something to do.

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