Okay, it's not really that nearby; it's a 60 minute drive there and a 45 minute drive home due to traffic that will only get worse for the entire month of October. Salem, MA, is like that near Halloween.
But here's why I'm glad: I can wear any frikkin' thing to the university that I want to. I could wear a clown suit and still no one would notice.
Today, a day barely into the low 60's in temp, I see while walking through one of the academic buildings a girl wearing short-shorts, striped long-sleeved shirt, bare thighs and knees, black calf-socks, and slippers; she kind of reminds me of Miley Cyrus but with a half-yard more fabric. I also see a tall beanstalk of a young man wearing jeans, a short-sleeved t-shirt, and an enormous fuzzy winter hat that makes him look like Khrushchev in the dead of winter.
It doesn't matter what we older, non-traditional evening grad students wear. We could be wearing the emperor's new clothes and no one would bat an eyelash. When I walk across campus in my dumpy work pants and my silly but sensible shoes with my stretched-from-the-day shirt covered by my slightly pilly old fleece zip-front jacket, I don't give a shit.
Nobody cares. Seriously. Nobody.
I nod my head at Calf-Sock-Girl and smile slightly at Fuzz-Head-Boy and go on my merry way to class. I may not dress like they do nor look like they do, but I have one thing they don't, so tough luck! My hair is gray and it's all natural, kids., alllll naturallllll.
See? I can be a trendsetter, too.
