How I Met My Best Friend: First Day of High School

Middle School: Constricted by SMOD

I fondly remember the day and how I met my best friend. About ten years ago on August 27, I started one of the most dreadful journeys of a child's life-Middle school. In that moment I hated that new journey, especially because I had just migrated from Greensboro to Whitsett N.C.; removing all of my previous friends forcing me to acquaint myself with a whole new school and decide who I should grant friendships. Oh, I should also mention that the middle school I went to implemented SMOD. This is an abbreviated term used in Guilford County meaning Standard Mode of Dress to help alleviate peer pressure associated with fashion while preventing some behavioral problems for the improvement in school climate, discipline, and achievement.

Let it be known that I had and kind of still have a level of hatred for the idea SMOD, yet I think it sort of boosted my creativity. Hear me out, the limitations that were seemingly forced upon us made us, at least me, more imaginative and creative in how we wore our uniforms. I recall one morning, before school, I was trying to decide on what to wear out of the 'many' options that I was given. At that moment of searching, it sparked, I saw two polo shirts and saw the opportunity to layer (which is one of my favorite design/styling tools). I distinctly remember one of my layering combos was this police strobe light like blue polo on the outside with a crisp white polo underneath, I would pull the white polo collar through so when you looked at me you would see this two-tone polo, with a white collar and blue torso. I could have sworn I was the most fly dresser at that school with my layering of many different colors, even though layering the middle of summer may not have been the best idea...you know because of heat and sweating is not the best look.

The Liberation of Graduation

But fast-forward a couple of years, I would say about four years, from the initial day I started middle school. I finally gained my freedom from SMOD on graduation day. When those glorious freedom bells rang out across my life I was given the opportunity to think for myself, be creative in what I wore and how presented myself. There was such beauty on that day I was released from that constricted jail-like lifestyle. I don't know how I can express this enough to you...as Aretha Franklin would say 'Freedom (freedom), Freedom (freedom), Freedom, oh FREEDOM!!'. Being freed boosted my love and passion for fashion so much that my creativity exploded.

Embracing Creativity and Individuality in High School

I attended Weaver Academy, or should I say Philip J. Weaver Academy Education Center of the Performing and Visual Arts for high school...I know the name may be a little extra and longer than several other schools but the “extra” fits the school. Weaver was a school created for people with extra creativity, extra ambition, and was extraordinarily diverse. That element of extra seemed to promote schoolwide confidence in many ways. Like the way, one portrayed themselves, how they stood taller being in their skin. And how one dressed themselves, wearing whatever they felt like wearing, whether it be a fairy crown with a bag for a dress and doc martens for shoes or a tuxedo as if you were preparing for your wedding. This schools leniency, when it came to dress code separated it from any other school beside the fact that it was “extra”ordinary. And for me coming from a conservative dress code (SMOD) I was taken aback like a compressed spring that then exploded because of the new revelation of what it looked like to be confident and thinking for yourself as 'freed people.'

My first day I had a head full of hair, I wore a Cosby sweater; because the 90's throwback was just surfacing and became extremely popular during that time, some semi-distressed jeans and tied it all together with six-inch timberland boots. I knew from that day forward I would be a trendsetter, attempt to my hardest to stay ahead of the fashion curve and would forever be confident because of fashion. In high school, I finally felt what it was like to be free in your creativity. To be able to pick and choose what or who you wanted to be for today. Also in high school two of the best things happened to me: I met my best friend in the whole wide world; Nelson, and I experienced what it was to shop freely finally. I know that sounds so weird...like 'Cameron, you never shopped before high school?' I mean I have shopped before, but it was always for uniform polos and khakis and the occasional weekend shopping for clothes to wear on the weekends. (I didn't wear a uniform 24 hours a day and seven days a week). I was allowed to now shop for my everyday clothes and throw all of those hideous uniforms away.

I remember buying uniforms use to be so hard because you would have to pass all of the clothes you wanted and longed to have in your possession and be forced to look at bland clothing choices for a uniform. But now I could pick whatever I wanted, necessarily, there were still rules to follow in high school. Like, 'Pants, shorts, and skirts are to be worn at the waist. Undergarments should NOT be visible.' I mean we can't have children naked out here in these streets, another rule was 'Clothing with holes that violate hemline requirements (which was that shorts, skirts, and dresses should cover to the mid-thigh or below the fingertips) for shorts and skirts is prohibited.' Although rules and regulations were still in place, this was the most freedom I had received since elementary school. And in high school fashion became an outlet for me to release my internal confidence.

Meeting My Best Friend

On the inside, I was so confident and sure of myself (probably because of my parents implementing self-love into my life) that I didn't care about what someone thought of what I had on because I know on the inside that I looked good and felt good. Some may call this an egotistical love for self, but that would be the negative way of looking at confidence (Success vs. Self-Sabotage). I found my confidence in fashion, and that is how I met my best friend Nelson during my senior year. I guess my confidence poured through my pores because I distinctly remember one of the first things he said to me was about how I dressed. He told me 'I love your style you seem so bold and carefree.' and I was and am...later to find that bold is another word for confident. I loved his style and the way he carried himself, and I think that is what made us click so quickly. I was so quick that in a month or two he had invited me to NYFW. 

References

1. Franklin, Aretha. 'Think.' Atlantic Records, 1968.