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Defined by a Purple Shirt
Oct. 12th, 2011 10:26 pmHe was the youngest of three boys all born within four and a half years of each other. That summed up most of his personality right there. He wasn’t a leader but he felt he was close enough to the top that he thought he could be. More importantly, he was raised as a quiet kid, due to the environment he grew up in. Being the fifth in line, by the time it was his turn to speak his mind, most of his thoughts had already been said by others.
He was only openly called an ‘accident’ by his brothers; his parents preferred the term ‘surprise’. However he knew it was just the same word with a different connotation. This didn’t bother him so much, but he didn’t try to ask for much growing up, as he knew he wasn’t technically planned on being there.
His early childhood zoomed by, and looking back on it, he doesn’t remember much of what being a kid was. When his childhood friends were watching Land Before Time, he saw Jurassic Park for the first time. The dinosaurs were there, but that’s about as close as the connections come. It made for an awkward stage of growing up during elementary school.
Despite these differences with most classmates, he remembers always being the one to raise his hand to caution an answer in a math lesson or volunteering to be a lunch monitor. He also wasn’t afraid to crack a joke when the time called for it, and he wasn’t too bad at being the class clown if he remembered correctly. He craved the attention. He felt that anybody could do this in the safe domain of elementary school. He was one among equals. And when it came to what you wore, it was only second last in importance to what you’re hair looked like each day. Your pants could have the biggest holes with the dirtiest knees and no one thought twice about it. His first experience in middle school was soon to prove to be a valuable lesson.
That first morning of middle school, he decided on his favourite blue shirt to wear to class. He had worn it for most of the summer and unbeknownst to him, it had faded from numerous washing from a royal blue to a colour bordering purple. He sat in the middle of his new class and a red-haired girl he knew from elementary school yelled his name from across the class. He turned and gave a friendly wave.
Then she uttered the words that haunted him for the rest of his middle school days.
“Why are you wearing a purple shirt?”
The class looked and joined her in laughter. He looked down in horror at the optical illusion he was wearing. When he had put it on this morning it had been blue! But now that someone had said it, it undoubtedly became purple. He spent most of the rest of that day as close to the bottom of his chair as he could get.
From that day forward he equipped himself with an army of the plainest grey and white shirts he could find. From then on each morning before he dressed he was sure to carefully inspect his clothing. Before that he had never thought of anyone having a problem with a shirt he wore. Middle school was a new game, and with it came new rules. There was no more answering questions unless you were specifically called upon. And most importantly, be sure to not do anything to stick out.
He spent the rest of his life following those rules. He eventually got used to the idea. And besides, he learned he could hear some pretty interesting things in life by keeping his mouth closed.
He was only openly called an ‘accident’ by his brothers; his parents preferred the term ‘surprise’. However he knew it was just the same word with a different connotation. This didn’t bother him so much, but he didn’t try to ask for much growing up, as he knew he wasn’t technically planned on being there.
His early childhood zoomed by, and looking back on it, he doesn’t remember much of what being a kid was. When his childhood friends were watching Land Before Time, he saw Jurassic Park for the first time. The dinosaurs were there, but that’s about as close as the connections come. It made for an awkward stage of growing up during elementary school.
Despite these differences with most classmates, he remembers always being the one to raise his hand to caution an answer in a math lesson or volunteering to be a lunch monitor. He also wasn’t afraid to crack a joke when the time called for it, and he wasn’t too bad at being the class clown if he remembered correctly. He craved the attention. He felt that anybody could do this in the safe domain of elementary school. He was one among equals. And when it came to what you wore, it was only second last in importance to what you’re hair looked like each day. Your pants could have the biggest holes with the dirtiest knees and no one thought twice about it. His first experience in middle school was soon to prove to be a valuable lesson.
That first morning of middle school, he decided on his favourite blue shirt to wear to class. He had worn it for most of the summer and unbeknownst to him, it had faded from numerous washing from a royal blue to a colour bordering purple. He sat in the middle of his new class and a red-haired girl he knew from elementary school yelled his name from across the class. He turned and gave a friendly wave.
Then she uttered the words that haunted him for the rest of his middle school days.
“Why are you wearing a purple shirt?”
The class looked and joined her in laughter. He looked down in horror at the optical illusion he was wearing. When he had put it on this morning it had been blue! But now that someone had said it, it undoubtedly became purple. He spent most of the rest of that day as close to the bottom of his chair as he could get.
From that day forward he equipped himself with an army of the plainest grey and white shirts he could find. From then on each morning before he dressed he was sure to carefully inspect his clothing. Before that he had never thought of anyone having a problem with a shirt he wore. Middle school was a new game, and with it came new rules. There was no more answering questions unless you were specifically called upon. And most importantly, be sure to not do anything to stick out.
He spent the rest of his life following those rules. He eventually got used to the idea. And besides, he learned he could hear some pretty interesting things in life by keeping his mouth closed.
