At my very dress-code permissive middle school, I took up wearing a floor length red velour cape for a few weeks as a scrappy pre-teen.

I reasoned that it was a perfectly sensible wardrobe option, as it was winter, and a cape was pretty warm and provided leg coverage, unlike a measly cardigan. Plus, it looked awesome.

An early member of the high school marching band as an eighth grader, I did not give two shits about what my peers had to say about my clothing choices. It didn’t make sense to, when high school sophomores and juniors thought I was a hilarious little badass and invited me (me!) out to their Applebee’s nights. (What an honor!)

Though I had to toss it when my sister’s cat peed on it and haven’t worn a cape in plain clothes since, every now and then I look at capes online, dreaming.

So you can do it. I believe in you. Brush off that pallor of beaten-down adulthood. Tap into your inner toddler, your inner quirky iconoclast. Don your cape, Jonas. Maybe I will, too.