I own 14 pairs of sunglasses. They range from John Lennon inspired circles to 2007 Joe Jonas square shaped and a pair I picked up off the ground at a music festival, cleaned and kept as my own. For me, I feel hidden under sunglasses. The cooler they look, the less I feel people are looking at me. It doesn’t make much sense if I really sit and think about it, but that’s just the myth I made up a couple years back.
When I was in seventh grade I went on a class trip to Washington D.C. Instead of buying a t-shirt or a key chain with the spending money my parents gave me, I searched for the perfect new pair of sunglasses to add to my growing collection. My childhood best friend agreed to help.
My classmates and I flooded off our Greyhound bus and invaded a souvenir shop across from the famous Ford’s Theatre. I spied a spinning rack of sun shades.
“What about these?” I said, excitedly placing a pair of sepia-tinted aviators on my face.
“I don’t think they look the best on your face.” My friend denied while spinning the rack of glasses.
As a seventh grade girl that was enough to destroy my self-confidence. What did she mean by that?! I looked in the mirror on the rack and didn’t see anything wrong with how they looked on my face, but because my friend disapproved, I put them back and settled on a pair of yellow and black taxicab looking glasses Joe Jonas most likely owned.
I thought about that pair of aviators my friend denied for the rest of the trip and for many years after. Sounds dramatic, but I often wondered if I didn’t buy them because I didn’t like them, or I didn’t buy them because of what my friend thought. I guess she was being a good friend and trying to help me look my best, but for some reason, I really wanted to go back and buy the aviators.
Years later, the taxicab sunglasses became my resident car pair of sunglasses. One day, I opened the door to my 2001 Nissan Altima and sat flat on my seventh-grade taxicab shades. I was a bit disappointed, but I knew what style of shades I wanted to replace them with.
I went to Target and bought myself a pair of sepia-tinted aviators. No one told me not to and even if they did I probably wouldn’t have listened to them anyway.
Since then, I’ve crafted the life motto “If you like the sunglasses, buy the sunglasses.” The phrase reminds me to do what I feel is right for me and will make me happy. People can try to tell you what they think is best for you, but you are the one who has to live with your own decisions and actions. Do what you want and own it.
And child, go buy yourself those sunglasses.
