Dress for success

Walking onto The campus of Weetern Michigan University for the first time was not what I had hoped it would be. I carried something with me I hated. I was shy and didn't want to talk in front of people I didn't know. I didn't know anyone. I tried to be social with those around, but I wasn't good at starting conversations and there was nothing about me that made them want to start conversations with me.

I feel so different about these things now, but I remember giving a speech in High School on Stonehenge and I rushed, I didn't make eye contact and otherwise work to get out from in front f the class as quickly as possible. There were people n there I called my friends. This was a topic I liked. I just didn't like being infront of them talking. It felt like I could ruin my life with one wrong word. Additionally, I knew that this was something I could be good at, if I could just get over the fear.

I did not like being this way. In fact, I denied that talking in front of people bothered me, because I knew it shouldn't. I thought I would grow out of it, but in my first few days of college, I realized a more proactive move wuld need to be taken.

What that would be was jumping in with both feet. I needed to force myself to be infront of my classmates, even be a little foolish. I needed to prove to myself that this really was nothing to worry about. How?

Dress in such a way you will get attention, then don't run from it. Laugh at yourself and talk intelligently. Get attention with the look, but keep them with the talk. The idea was frightening and invigorating.

The morning after I made this decision, I selected what I would wear. The jeans with huge hole, held together with safety pins. Tee shirt covered by not one, but two flannel shirts; the top flannel being so worn you could see the second through its holes. A bright striped, Rastafarian style hat, the kind with a string tying one end of a long tube of cloth. The colors where red and gold, green and blue. It looked crazy. I added to this purple sunglasses, there the lens were squares turn up like diamonds in round silver rims. I looked at myself in the mirror and laughed, both out of nerves how I looked.

I stepped foot on campus with a different confidence. I was looking for people who where looking at me. I waved and said hello. In class, I talked to people and tried to answer every question I could. There was something changing in me. There was no downside to this, I wasn't rebuked, I could make a mistake and no one cared, it was like opening a a box I could never reclose. Over the weeks, I grew to like the attention, speaking to strangers and speaking in front of people. I learned the the fear was for nothing. There really was nothing to fear. To this day, I love speaking in front of groups. I still get nervous, but I like the charge of it.

As a foot note, I kept the hat and jeans far longer than I needed them, because I kinda liked them.