30 Day Letter Challenge: Take 2, Day 3

Day 3: Letter to Something You've Owned for More than 5 Years

Dear 8th Grade Jeans, 

     You have tormented me for quite a while now, sitting in the back of my bottom dresser drawer.  Everyone who knows me knows quite well that I'm not what you'd consider a girly girl in any way, shape, or form.  I really don't care what most people think, find makeup to be too much time and work, and much prefer shorts and a t-shirt to anything nice.  But there are 2 things about my looks that I cannot help but fret about like a high school freshman girl trying to impress the seniors. One is my hair, which I brush several times a day, but the other is my weight. Not in a omg-I-weighed-myself-for-the-eighth-time-today-and-I-gained-a-half-a-pound-so-I-need-to-go-on-a-diet type of worrying, but more because I pride myself on being in some semblance of good shape (despite the fact that I HATE gyms and refuse to go).  

     But, my old pair of jeans, I also get some sort of small pleasure from wearing out my clothes before I outgrow them, and you have defied all logic in that sense.  You were my favorite pair of jeans throughout 8th grade and I wore you quite often. Even in the first year or two of high school, you were frequently grabbed along with a t-shirt in my ten minute dash to get out the door. During these times I went through at least 3 other pairs of jeans, worn out to the point of being discarded, while you remained in tact and ready to go out again.  It's not like you were even a particularly good brand of jeans! I probably got you from Walmart or Kohls and there's absolutely no way you should be in the shape you are in today.

     And so, my goal for the past few years has been to fit into you once again at least long enough to finish the job so that you can retire.  Try as I do, while I have occasionally succeeded in putting you on, wearing you for more than a few hours is more pain than it's worth. And so, dear pants, maybe it's time to give up the fight and admit defeat. Perhaps it's time to accept that I have developed hips and a butt since 8th grade and that there will never come a day when I can squeeze into you again. But I am stubborn and I hate to lose, so it may be a while before I convince myself of the need to surrender.  Until then, jeans, you will continue to sit in the back of my drawer, a reminder of our unfinished business.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

~ Steph