One of the most memorable lines in the classic novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, comes from the lawyer Atticus Finch when he explains to his son that in order to understand a person’s situation, one must “Consider things from his point of view … climb into his skin and walk around in it.” A couple weeks ago, I attempted to do this in an interesting sort of way: I wore the same clothes for a week.
The dare started off when I went to Sweet Tomatoes with some of my journalism friends for an evening of food and camaraderie. After the typical dinner conversations ended, my attire became the center of attention, as someone mistakenly asked if I was wearing the same clothing as the day before.
I informed my friend that I had made the executive decision to wear argyle for the entire week, since I had recently discovered that I own exactly five argyle sweaters: one for each day of school. My friend had seen the argyle sweater from the day before and mistook it for the one I had worn on that night — an honest mistake on his part.
My journalism teacher, Greg Stobbe, found the mix-up hilarious, and asked me to wear the clothing I was wearing the next day, to see what kind of reactions I would receive. I declined his offer, but my table-mates persisted, which caused me to give in. I even raised the stakes to an entire week, seeing as it made my friends so interested.
I drove to school for the first three days of the dare fulling expecting people to take notice right away, and, being high school students, point at and mock me for my clothing. It turned out that this failed to occur, and only a few people really took notice and commented (if more did, they failed to inform me).
It was not until the fourth day — when my friend Kendall Wheeler, ’12, realized that my clothes had not changed for four days — that I got the reaction I was hoping for. She looked into my eyes and asked very seriously if something had happened or if anything was wrong. She asked me if my house had burned down or if I had ran away from home, and only paused after I began to laugh uncontrollably. Regrettably, I let Kendall in on the dare, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Apart from Kendall, none of my peers really took notice of my attire. I was upset by this, mainly because my motivation for this dare had been to see the reactions people would have if they knew the clothes I wore were dirty. Unfortunately for me and my conscience, the one person who took the most notice was me.
After three days I felt absolutely disgusted with the condition of my attire and concluded that the only reasonable thing to do was to wash it. When I was about three feet away from my washer, I realized how absolutely selfish and bratty I was being.
About 884 million people, or one in eight, lack access to safe water, and about 80 percent of humans lives on less than $10 a day.
I am not one who vigorously works out or plays in the dirt, so my clothes were relatively clean, despite being worn for five days straight. Here I was, willing to waste money to clean clothes which were still clean. At that moment, I felt extremely selfish; I quickly decided to keep my clothes the way they were and to return to the homework I had been working on.
Ultimately, that is the lesson I learned. I am a very fortunate and privileged person. I live in America, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and go to a private school where I learn new things every day.
This, however, does not pertain to everyone around the globe. The vast majority of people who live on this planet are not wealthy and cannot afford multiple pairs of clothes. Many people wear the same clothing day in and day out — something I attempted to do, but was successful. It did not hurt me to wear the same clothes, and, if anything, it gave me a new perspective.
Overall, I now know that it is perfectly acceptable to wear the same clothes for more than a day without washing them. I was fine with “dirty” clothes the same way I am fine with clean clothes. Clothes are just clothes; as long as they cover you, they are satisfactory.
Through this seemingly meaningless dare, I feel that I now have an appreciation for my possessions and a desire to help those who are not as well off as myself. As a result, I plan to volunteer in on-campus clubs and other organizations to improve the welfare of others.
For information on volunteer agencies, visit Habitat for Humanity or Operation Christmas Child.
