I was THAT Girl

Shoulder pads, perms to give limp hair a boost, braces,taller yet not very evened out, and a smattering of acnejust as a little frosting on the cake. I was her. The onestanding awkwardly in the back of class photos taller thanthe boys and larger than the girls. It was me.

I am standing in front of my closet at my parents housesorting through clothing. I am appalled. There was,apparently, a reason why none of these clothes made it tocollege four years ago with me. There is the brown tie-diet-shirt from my preschool Thanksgiving celebration. I was anIndian. The green corduroy stretch pants and matching longsleeve zip up top are on opposite sides of the closet (if there are pictures of me in this I think that I should haveburning rights). The velvet blue pants and the 1997 mathcompetition t-shirt are snuggled in the middle like they aretrying to hide from my terror stricken eyes. I hope that Idid not wear them together as the t-shirt is that brightyellow-orange color.

Finally, I get to the dressy section of the closet andhanging there is this outfit I was once so proud to wear.Green polyester pants and a very pretty top that matched itwith-- shoulder pads. I remember smiling at myself in themirror as I wore this outfit. The shoulder pads gave me amore square look and I thought that I looked defined andstately. I wore it in the picture where I was the eleventhgrade class president. I thought I looked amazing, butreally I was just making a nineties fashion mistake.

I think the bigger mistake is that all of these clothesstill fit me and they are still all residing in my closethoping one day I might have a mid-life crisis and try torejuvenate the early nineties.