A Matter of Taste

Nyssa & Eva. Strange high school ritual? (2003)

"The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another." ~ Quentin Crisp

I didn't take this picture. Thank goodness. The setting is the girls dorm at the Mississippi math and science school. I suspect that either Margaret or Tiffany snapped this shot. It is a "what were they thinking?" type of shot; this must be a significant ritual of some sort. I don't remember ever doing this though. All I can hope is that they didn't wear them to class; but if Nyssa wore flannel pajamas to class (with a sweatshirt over them), then who knows. She doesn't look the least bit embarrassed!

"To an adolescent, there is nothing in the world more embarrassing than a parent." ~ Dave Barry

Right! No parent here. I shouldn't wonder at all. This is the child that routinely climbed the tree in my office parking lot and sat there among the branches, talking to the birds and reading. A nurse from the doctor's office next door called to let me know she was up there. She is the seven year old who had her tonsils out at 7 AM one summer morning, then slept the afternoon on my office couch only to go home and talk on the phone for two hours to her little friend. The next day she wondered why her throat hurt after singing "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" as loud as she could for three hours. Never mind the tonsillectomy; my throat would have hurt after all that singing.

I try not to look at this and think, "Where did I go wrong?" Fashion isn't one of her biggest concerns. Occasionally I see flashes of hope but usually these are short lived. Maybe someday, someone will send in this picture to "What Not To Wear"; just maybe they might take her on.

"A child develops individuality long before he discovers taste" ~ Erma Bombeck

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